The MOOD Podcast

In this episode you'll learn how to tell whether your photography is actually art, why chasing technical perfection is holding your work back, and how to develop a photographic voice that's unmistakably your own.
This week Matt chats with Ridwan Didot, a fine art documentary and wedding photographer from Indonesia who runs the studio Native Visual and approaches commercial work with the eye and patience of a documentarian.
We get into one of the oldest debates in photography, whether there's such a thing as photography that is art and photography that isn't, and where that line actually sits. Ridwan shares why a photograph that still works in 50 years matters more than one that just looks good today, how 6 years photographing his own grandparents trained his eye more than any client job, and why he believes copying another photographer, or even copying your own past work, is genuinely impossible.
This is a conversation about intention, sensitivity, function over aesthetics, and the slow work of finding a creative voice that's truly yours.
Other things we discussed:
Why your mother's old family photos might teach you more than any workshop
The "demolition" theory of creativity: learning to construct a photo so you can destroy it
What Rick Rubin's The Creative Act gets right about making work without needing approval
How Diane Arbus reframed the relationship between the subject and the photograph
Why insecurity, used honestly, can be a tool rather than a weakness
Alfred Adler, the "neutral position", and how psychology shapes the photographer
The Photographer's Playbook and the danger of photographing feelings badly
Why the love and care you put into a frame is visible in the final image
The one question Ridwan asks every artist he meets
Ridwan's profile: https://www.instagram.com/ridwandidot/
___________________________
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Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more.

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Matt sits down with photographer, writer, and educator Tim Carpenter, author of 'To Photograph Is to Learn How to Die' and photobooks such as 'Local Objects', 'Little' and 'Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road', for a deep conversation on the philosophy beneath the photographic image. 
In this episode you will learn a way to understand why the form of a photograph, not its subject, is where its meaning and beauty actually live, and how working with a camera can teach you to make peace with a world that will never bend to your wishes.
We explore the 'broken self' and the gap between the real and the ideal, why form is everything that is not in front of the camera, the difference between the depicted and the detected, how the body and the camera move through the world as a single instrument, why beauty in a photograph is a fleeting moment of equilibrium, and how a photographer can build a meaningful body of work and a real audience without chasing scale.
Other things we discussed:
Why great art resists interpretation, and the ethics of meeting a subject as something singular
The exposure test that reveals whether you truly care about form
How Tim moved from being subject-matter driven to understanding structure
Reading his own emotional distance in the photographs of Local Objects
The pinned butterfly problem in portrait photography
What Robert Adams wrote in a two-page handwritten letter
Why Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes may not help working photographers
The anti-solipsism machine, and how the camera refuses your projections
The loss behind Bucks Pond Road and the books that became a loose trilogy
Why you do not need a big audience to make work that matters
Tim's links:
Website: https://www.timcarpenterphotography.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timcarpenter
___________________
Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!
Support the show
Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more.

The MOOD Insiders Community
https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders

Learn with me
https://mattjacob.co/learn

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Website:
https://themoodpodcast.com

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Matt talks with psychologist Zahra Ciardi, founder of Ascendant Bali, to explore the inner life of the creative person: why so many photographers feel their work isn't truly theirs, the limiting beliefs that keep artists stuck, and how to put your work into the world without being ruled by validation.
By the end of this episode you'll understand why your photography stops feeling like yours, and what it takes to create from your true self instead of your need to be seen.
Zahra works in trauma recovery and peak performance, and she breaks down the psychology of high achievers, the anatomy of avoidance, the inner critic, and how childhood shapes the way we create as adults.

Other things discussed:
The "bus" model of the self and why the inner critic ends up driving
Highly sensitive people and why creatives feel everything so intensely
Over-diagnosis, self-diagnosis, and the bigger problem of under-treatment
Self-neutrality as the realistic first step before self-love
Graded exposure for photographers afraid to share their work
Using social media intentionally instead of being used by it
Whether healing costs you your creative edge
How childhood memory is stored in the body, not just the mind
The single values exercise Zahra says works every time

Zahra's links:
www.ascendantbali.com
www.zahraciardi.com
https://www.instagram.com/zahra_ciardi/
____________________
Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!
Support the show
Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more.

The MOOD Insiders Community
https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders

Learn with me
https://mattjacob.co/learn

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Cristina Mittermeier is a National Geographic photographer, co-founder of SeaLegacy, and author of "Hope." Her work has been featured in National Geographic's series "Photographer" and in publications around the world. Cristinais the photographer who coined the term "conservation photography," co-founded SeaLegacy, and made the starving polar bear image seen by an estimated 2.5 billion people. 
In this episode Matt and Cristina discuss how to find your photographic voice that actually means something, why a point of view separates an artist from a craftsman, and the one principle Cristina has built her life around: to show up.
- Join the Mood Insiders for ad-free extended episodes, monthly masterclasses, the weekly book club, and much more (link in notes below) - 
Other things you will take away from this episode:
The "glorious amateur" and why expertise is not a prerequisite for meaningful photography
The full story behind the starving polar bear photograph and the backlash that followed
How the social media algorithm punishes beautiful and important photography
The idea of the photographer as a "membrane" rather than a messenger
Why storytelling now matters more than the photograph itself
"Enoughness" as a personal answer to consumerism
Building a real portfolio of physical work instead of living on Instagram
A personal handbook of ethics for photographers
Why AI will make human-made photography more valuable, not less
Legacy, ego, and shedding the need to be exceptional
SeaLegacy and the next decade of conservation photography
Practical advice for emerging photographers starting out today
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Cristina’s platforms:
Website - https://www.cristinamittermeier.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mitty/
SeaLegacy - https://www.sealegacy.org/
____
Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!
Support the show
Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more.

The MOOD Insiders Community
https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders

Learn with me
https://mattjacob.co/learn

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Website:
https://themoodpodcast.com

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In this episode, Matt sits down with Rich-Joseph Facun, a celebrated American documentary photographer, former photojournalist of 15 years, and founder of the independent publishing imprint Liars Corner. 
In this conversation we discuss his three monographs: Black Diamonds, Little Cities, and 1804, the ethics of street and portrait photography, photographing strangers in Trump-era Appalachia, walking away from photojournalism, finding your photographic voice, and why the global photo book industry urgently needs more marginalised and Indigenous voices.
Other things we discussed:
Street portraiture, approaching strangers, and consent in documentary photography
Growing up in a Southern Baptist military family and door-to-door evangelism as training for portrait work
Photographing Trump-supporting Appalachia as a person of colour with a trans child
The viral portrait of a stranger with a damaged forehead tattoo crying on the street
Quitting photojournalism after 15 years and the identity crisis that followed
Why he stopped using Rembrandt lighting and the decisive moment in his portrait work
How to find your photographic voice after mastering the craft
Self-publishing a photo book vs pitching to independent publishers
The making of Black Diamonds, Little Cities, and 1804
Launching Liars Corner as an Indigenous-owned photo book imprint in Appalachia
Elitism, gatekeeping, and barriers to entry inside the global photo book publishing industry
Mentoring emerging documentary photographers and funding their first monographs
Why awards, accolades, and staff photographer positions stopped mattering
Rich-Joseph Facun
Instagram: https://instagram.com/facun
Website: https://facun.com
Imprint: https://liarscorner.press
____________________________________
Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!
Support the show
Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more.

The MOOD Insiders Community
https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders

Learn with me
https://mattjacob.co/learn

My Newsletter
https://www.mattjacob.co/archive

Website:
https://themoodpodcast.com

Socials:
IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay