The Terrible Creative

A podcaster recently told me this show was "really dark." So today, we're leaning into that darkness—because that seemed way more fun. This episode is about shadow work. Not the Instagram version. The real version. The kind that happens when you realize the thing limiting your creative work isn't technical skill—it's the parts of yourself you've been hiding from. Through David Bowie's near-destruc...

Community & Feedback Take the Listener Survey: What kind of episodes do you want more of? Your feedback directly shapes future content. 🔗 Complete the survey here Share Your Story: Have you experienced professional compartmentalization? The cognitive whiplash between personal crisis and work demands? Share your story— email or leave us a voicemail What happens when you have to switch from con...

Sometimes creativity has fuck-all to do with your job title. In this episode, Patrick explores why the most dangerous creative minds often don't call themselves artists—they're teachers buying classroom supplies with grocery money, middle managers translating executive gibberish into human language, and baristas solving problems that million-dollar consultants couldn't crack with PowerPoint. Throu...

Every photographer needs permission to suck. And I mean that literally. In this episode, I explore the difference between accidental failure and strategic failure, and why that difference will determine whether you spend your career playing it safe or actually growing into the photographer you're meant to become. From my own lighting disaster at a corporate shoot to Jerry Seinfeld's brutal honesty...

One phone call. One late invoice. One moment of controlled but very real rage. In this episode, I unpack a recent client conflict that left me feeling powerful, anxious, vindicated—and deeply uncomfortable. It’s not about being right. It’s about what happens when your nervous system hijacks your ethics, and you end up blowing up the wrong bridge. Social psychologist Jamie Hughes joins to help me u...

There are shoots where everything clicks. The light is magic. The client is chill. The work feels effortless. This episode isn’t about those. Instead, we’re going into the plumbing. Literally. From overflowing toilets in luxury villas to Fortune 500 invoice purgatory, from last-minute gear fails to moments that remind you why you ever picked up a camera in the first place — this one’s for every ph...

What happens when the thing you made in the dark suddenly ends up in the spotlight? This week, Patrick gets personal about the strange pressure of being “featured,” and why attention might be the most creatively dangerous drug of all. From a viral photo in the dunes to the slow collapse of chasing relevance, this episode dives into the algorithm’s indifference to honesty, the myth of momentum, and...

"I thought the work would save me. I was grossly mistaken." What happens when a stranger on Clubhouse calls you a technician instead of an artist? Patrick breaks down the brutal midnight conversation that cracked open everything he thought he knew about his photography career. From the golden handcuffs of corporate work to the humbling reality of freelancing for $650, this episode is about dismant...

Everyone loves a comeback story. But what about the part where you’re just… sitting in a garage at 2 a.m., surrounded by half-charged batteries, broken gear, and a growing sense that something inside you might be cracking? This episode isn’t about triumph. It’s about that strange, quiet middle, the one nobody posts about, where you’re not broken, not healed… just angry. Angry at the industry. Angr...

What happens when you still love photography but start to wonder if there’s any place left for you in the industry? In this raw, vulnerable episode, Patrick Fore gets brutally honest about what it means to be a working photographer in 2025. From a moment of personal crisis in a cluttered garage to the soul-draining grind of cold outreach and algorithm-chasing, this episode pulls back the curtain o...

Episode Title: Why Shapes How On Intention, Execution, and the Lie of Objectivity Description: You can nail the lighting. Get the shot. Hit all the settings. But if you don’t know why you’re making the image, it’s just visual noise. In this episode of The Terrible Photographer Podcast , we dig into the lie at the heart of modern photography — that technical mastery is the pinnacle of the craft. It...

This episode wasn’t planned. But with federal troops deployed in Los Angeles, students arrested, immigrants targeted, and journalists silenced — it felt dishonest to pretend everything was normal. In this special essay-style episode, I explore the role of photography in moments of protest and power: Why the frame is never neutral How truth is shaped, and sometimes distorted, by the camera The diff...

At some point, every artist has to choose: Keep making work that gets likes. Or make work that actually says something. This is an episode about the quiet uprising. The moment you stop painting for the academy. The moment you realize you’re not burned out from doing too much,  you’re burned out from doing too much that means nothing. We start with a true (and strange) story from 1863, when fourtee...

This week, I throw out the episode I was planning and respond to an email from Carri, a baby photographer from Michigan, whose words hit like a punch in the face. We’re talking about a different kind of burnout. Not from hustle, but from creative absence. From stillness. From not getting to do the thing you love. This is for the photographers, and all creatives, who feel the slow ache when the wor...

You ever clean your entire house and still smell something rotting? This episode is about that. Except the smell is coming from your portfolio. In Episode 10, we’re talking creative decay — that slow, invisible rot that sets in when your work looks good but feels dead. From personal stories (including one involving a bathtub and a topless model reading Vogue ) to a breakdown of the 60/40 Rule for...

Some nights, what keeps you up isn't anxiety,  it’s the quiet ache of misalignment. In this episode, we dive into the emotional and economic toll of creative work: the burnout, the spirals, the slow erosion of joy when your art becomes your paycheck. Patrick opens up about nearly quitting photography, the paradox of making a living off your creativity, and what it really means to protect your spar...

We all start by imitating. That’s human. But somewhere along the line, many of us stopped making work we love — and started making work that just looks like it belongs to someone else. In this episode, Patrick tells the strange, slightly heartbreaking story of Klarbinnax-7, an alien who crash-lands in California and becomes a crude copy of a workshop guru named Brad. Through this fictional tale (t...

this episode is a love letter to color. Not just as an aesthetic choice—but as psychology, science, culture, and storytelling. We start with a fictional moment on a busy New York City street, then dive into a 5-minute crash course on color theory (Bill Nye style), unpack cultural associations across time and geography, and land on practical ways to use color intentionally in your work. Whether you...

This one’s personal. In this episode, Patrick shares the story of a full-blown burnout that ended behind a dumpster — and why it didn’t start there. We talk about what burnout really looks like (spoiler: it’s not just being tired), how the body reacts to prolonged stress, and how that quiet voice telling you you’ve “lost it” might just be your nervous system waving a white flag. With insight from...

This week’s episode isn’t about trends, trolls, or gear. It’s about something quieter — the part of you that refuses to give up, even when the work feels impossible. We explore the idea of creative resistance, the myth of “falling behind,” and why showing up (even in small ways) is its own kind of creative power. There’s a story about trees, Biosphere 2, and why life’s “wind” might be shaping you...

You’re not missing a magic lens. There’s no course, preset pack, or algorithm trick that’s secretly holding you back. The truth is less glamorous — but way more powerful. In this episode, Patrick peels back the myth of overnight success and calls out the industry’s obsession with shortcuts. Through stories from world-class kitchens, overlooked jazz clubs, and forgotten film sets, he explores why c...

In this raw and unflinching episode, Patrick explores the psychology behind creative self-doubt and why your inner critic might be the biggest obstacle to your growth. Drawing from neuroscience research and brutally honest personal stories, this episode tackles the uncomfortable truths about self-criticism that most creative podcasts won't touch. Warning: This episode contains frank discussions ab...

Patrick calls out the toxic gatekeeping culture that's suffocating creativity in photography — and offers a better way forward for anyone tired of comment-section warriors and gear snobs who've confused being an asshole with having standards. Episode Summary From unsolicited critique bros to insecure middle-aged men treating Instagram like academic journals, photography has a gatekeeping problem....

Welcome to the first episode of The Terrible Photographer — a podcast for working photographers and creative humans who are done with fake positivity, influencer bullshit, and pretending they have it all figured out. Episode Summary Patrick shares the brutal Clubhouse critique that sparked this entire podcast, explores why "terrible" might be the most important phase of your creative development,...

This is The Terrible Creative. A show about what it actually costs to make things for a living. The tension between the privilege of doing work you love and the frustration of an industry that keeps moving the floor. The patterns, the irritants, and the internal questions creatives aren't supposed to ask in public. Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer based in San Diego. If your identit...