The MOOD Podcast

Matt Jacob
  • 4.9 (70)
  • Visual Arts
  • Biweekly

The MOOD Podcast is a long-form conversation series exploring photography, creativity, identity, and the inner life of artists. Hosted by Matt Jacob, the show moves beyond technique and trends to examine why people make work, how creative voices are formed, and what it takes to sustain a meaningful artistic life. Through thoughtful, unhurried conversations with photographers, filmmakers, and creative thinkers from around the world, the podcast explores themes of process, mental health, ethics, purpose, legacy, and the tension between art and industry. Episodes are grounded, reflective, and often philosophical, offering listeners provocation of thought rather than formulaic answers to copy. The MOOD Podcast is less about instruction and more about understanding, aimed at emerging and established creatives who care not just about what they make, but why they make it.  At its core, The MOOD Podcast is the art of conversation, one frame at a time. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the_moodpodcast Instagram: @the_moodpodcast /@mattyj_ay Website: https://themoodpodcast.com

  1. 22h ago

    Why Your Photography Looks Like Everyone Else’s, and It’s Not a Lack of Ideas

    In this solo episode I bring together 3 recent conversations: with photographer Matthew Genitempo, author of Jasper, psychologist Zahra Ciardi and photographer Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández, whose photobook Paraíso grew out of the hardest chapter of his life. Without knowing it, all 3 described the same obstacle: the version of you that holds the camera too tightly and needs every photograph to prove you're a real photographer. I talk about why that grip makes your photography look like everyone else's, why new gear, presets and trips don't fix it, and what actually loosens it: going back to one place close to home, being less precious with your pictures, sharing your work slowly, changing what fuels it and coming back to yourself every day. If you know what you should be doing with your photography but still aren’t doing it, these 5 shifts will change where your photographs come from. Other things we discussed: The critique where Todd Papageorge told Matthew Genitempo to stay in 1 placeCarrying hundreds of prints to reviews and learning they weren't saying what I thoughtWhy the photos you don't remember taking are the threads worth followingThe advice I've given for years that Zahra says could be wrongDo you have to suffer to make great photography?Emiliano's 3 daily questions and 3 gratitudesWhat would you photograph this week if you weren't trying to prove anything?Find Matthew here: https://www.matthewgenitempo.com/ https://www.instagram.com/genitempo/ Find Zahra here: https://zahraciardi.com/ https://www.instagram.com/zahra_ciardi/ https://ascendantbali.com/ Find Emiliano here: https://www.instagram.com/emilianozunigah/ 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Why Your Photography Looks Like Everyone Else’s, and It’s Not a Lack of Ideas

  2. Oct 29

    Feeling Like a Fraud Doesn’t Make You One, Says Photographer Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández

    In this episode I’m joined by Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández, a Costa Rican photographer whose photobook Paraíso, published by Trespasser in 2023, grew out of one of the hardest chapters of his life. We talk about the healing community he helped to build in the hills of Costa Rica, how it fell apart, and how photography gave him his purpose back when depression had taken it away. Emiliano opens up about feeling like a fraud, the question at the Chico Review that changed how he saw his own work, and why he believes the most meaningful photography comes from knowing yourself rather than from pain. If your photographs feel like they’re circling something you can’t yet name, this conversation might show you why honest work comes from knowing yourself, not from suffering. Other things we discussed: The question that started it all: what would your life look like with no obstacles?Who am I, what am I doing, where am I: the 3 questions he still asks every dayGiving a ride to a barefoot stranger who became his mentorTurning down Trespasser, and how it still led to the bookEditing Paraíso in Paradise Valley with Bryan Schutmaat, Matthew Genitempo and Harrison MillerShooting intuitively, before you know what the story isA daily practice of 3 questions and 3 gratitudesHis new project photographing strangers while they sleepEmiliano’s links: https://www.instagram.com/emilianozunigah/ https://trespasser.co/shop/paraiso 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Feeling Like a Fraud Doesn’t Make You One, Says Photographer Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández

  3. Oct 22

    What If a Photographer’s Fear of Failure Isn’t Fear at All? Psychologist Zahra Ciardi Explains

    I'm joined again by Zahra Ciardi, a registered psychologist and the founder of Ascendant Bali, for a second conversation about the psychology behind photography and creativity. We talk about what happens when a photographer's identity becomes fused with their work, and why that turns making, editing, sharing and feedback into a constant threat. We also talk about how to hold a sense of self that is clear but flexible. Zahra explains the difference between creating from the wound and creating from wholeness, why healing can mean grieving the emotional charge your photographs once carried, and how to train attention, presence and boredom tolerance when the world runs on 6-second focus. If criticism of your photography feels like a verdict on who you are, this conversation may helps you how to separate yourself from your work so you can create it, finish it and share it again. Other things we discussed: The chameleon effect: borrowing pieces of everyone around you when your sense of self is emptyNon-attachment, and being the blue sky behind the rainbows and the rainWhat gives a photograph its chargeThe Body Keeps the Score, and small ways to practise presenceShame, the defectiveness schema and the 3 ways we cope: surrender, avoidance and overcompensationMDR, schema therapy, compassion focused therapy and internal family systemsThe question Zahra would ask to open the door to all of this inner workListen to the first conversation here: https://youtu.be/keUo-Sq5sh8 Zahra's Links: https://www.zahraciardi.com/ https://www.instagram.com/zahra_ciardi/ https://www.ascendantbali.com/ 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    What If a Photographer’s Fear of Failure Isn’t Fear at All? Psychologist Zahra Ciardi Explains

  4. Oct 15

    Q&A: Why Your Photos Might Feel Stagnant (And How to Fix It) - Moments of Mood, 4.2

    This is a Q&A with questions sent in by photographers from my community. I answer whether your audience needs to understand your photography, if a project shot in a few days can have real depth, how to deal with perfectionism, the small steps behind my own work that nobody saw, and what to do when your work feels stagnant.  If your photography feels stuck or you can’t say what it’s about, some of these answers might help. 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Q&A: Why Your Photos Might Feel Stagnant (And How to Fix It) - Moments of Mood, 4.2

  5. Oct 8

    Why Photobooks Will Outlast the Internet - Matthew Genitempo (Part 2)

    THIS IS PART 2 OF A 2 PART CONVERSATION WITH MATTHEW GENITEMPO. In Part 2 of my conversation with photographer and publisher Matthew Genitempo, we go deep into his photobooks Mother of Dogs and Dogbreath, and into Trespasser, the small press he runs with Bryan Schutmaat and Cody Haltom. We talk about making Mother of Dogs on lockdown walks, why its pages are held together with packing tape, and the 3 smashed pennies on the cover. Then we turn to Dogbreath: photographing teenagers in the heat, and Dove, the boy whose words narrate a photobook he never appears in. Matthew also shares what he has learned about self-publishing, how Trespasser decides which books to make, and why he keeps his photography close to his chest until it is ready. In the second half of our chat you might just learn how to stop forcing your photography projects and let them find their own shape, and how to get a photobook into the world when no publisher is waiting for you. Other things we discussed: Why lockdown was a gift for him and his wife AdaHow Trespasser started between friendsPortfolio reviews, and shifting your expectations about book dealsWhy the photobook world is more reachable than it looksPacing a photobook so people slow downThe dead internet theory and the future of photobooksHis 1 piece of advice for emerging photographers Listen to part one here:  https://youtu.be/5io0kDgrdcs Links: https://matthewgenitempo.com/  https://www.instagram.com/genitempo/ https://trespasser.co/  https://www.instagram.com/trespasserbooks/ 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Why Photobooks Will Outlast the Internet - Matthew Genitempo (Part 2)

  6. Oct 1

    If You Still Question Your Photography, You Are Not Alone, So Does Matthew Genitempo (Part 1)

    THIS IS PART 1 OF A 2 PART CONVERSATION WITH MATTHEW GENITEMPO. I sat down with photographer Matthew Genitempo, the graphic designer turned photographer and publisher behind the photobooks Jasper, Mother of Dogs and Dogbreath. In part one we go deep into Jasper, the photobook he made largely in the forests of the Ozarks as his MFA thesis at the University of Hartford: the critique that told him to stay in one place, the Frank Stanford poems that shaped how he saw the landscape, the men who had cut themselves off from society, and how throwing out his shot lists and learning to shoot a slow large format camera fast changed his photography. If you're a photographer who keeps getting in your own way, your work feels scattered, or your most carefully planned pictures keep coming back flat, Matthew shows what can happen when you stop forcing it, dropping the idea of what your photography should be and trusting it to find its own way. Other things we discussed: Why the photographs that interest him most are the ones he doesn't remember takingMoving from graphic design into photographyWhat Fugazi taught him about doing things his own wayThe 5-minute critique that told him to keep goingThe story behind the mysterious animal photograph everyone asks aboutWhy he sees Jasper as fiction rather than documentary Matthew's links: https://www.matthewgenitempo.com/ https://trespasser.co/ https://www.instagram.com/genitempo/ 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    If You Still Question Your Photography, You Are Not Alone, So Does Matthew Genitempo (Part 1)

  7. Sep 24

    Andrea Modica's answer to the question every photographer asks eventually: what's the point? E134

    I sat down with Andrea Modica, the ‘Italian Story’ photographer (as well many other books) who has made every photograph since 1980 with an 8x10 view camera and prints all her work herself. Andrea studied with Richard Benson at Yale, teaches photography at Drexel University, and has just published ‘Italian Story’ with L'Artiere, 40 personal years of large format photographs made in and about Italy.  We talked about what makes a good photograph and why complexity matters more than beauty, how the 8x10 camera changes both the pictures and the way people behave in front of it, why she hands her editing and sequencing to people like Larry Fink, who curated her book 'As We Wait', and why she believes photography is a profession that is largely about failure. Other things we discussed: Why she left painting and sculpture for the rules of the large format cameraLoading film holders as a grounding ritual inside a process full of unknownsDoing everything by hand, from developing by inspection to platinum printing, and why she never hires assistantsTeaching analog photography to 18 and 20 year olds who want itEditing Italian Story from hundreds of negatives down to about 70 photographsThe personal stories inside the book that the viewer will never knowLarry Fink's foreword to As We Wait: sensual love aligned with darknessWhy the print still matters in a world of screens and AIThe myth of the suffering artist, and why trauma alone isn't complexLiving inside the confusion of unfinished workAndrea has 2 exhibitions showing in New York: Catholic Girl at AMR Art DUMBO, Brooklyn, until 22 October 2026, and Italian Story at the Alice Austen House, Staten Island, until February 2027. Andrea will also be signing books at the L'Artiere table at Paris Photo on Saturday 14 November at 4pm. See Andrea’s current exhibitions: https://aliceausten.org/italian_story/ https://www.amrartdumbo.com/ Get the book, Italian Story (L'Artiere): https://www.lartiere.com/en/prodotto/preorder-italian-story-andrea-modica/ https://www.lartiere.com/en/ Find Andrea on her website and Instagram: https://www.andreamodica.com/ https://www.instagram.com/andreamodica.photo/ 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Andrea Modica's answer to the question every photographer asks eventually: what's the point? E134

  8. Sep 17

    Your Worst Thoughts Arrive Dressed as Your Best Ideas - Moments of Mood, 4.1

    In this week’s Moments of Mood episode, you’ll learn why I believe meditation is the most direct route to a photographic voice that is unmistakably yours, and exactly what it does to your attention, your creativity and the way you see. I make the full case for meditation as a photography practice. I share my own history with depression, anxiety, loneliness and cancer, the years of therapies and frameworks that never stuck, and how Sam Harris's Waking Up finally gave me a tool I could use anywhere, in any state. I break down what the research says about a meditating brain: the Harvard study showing our minds wander almost half the time we're awake, the 8-week programmes that change grey matter density, and the studies linking open, receptive meditation directly to divergent thinking, the mode where new photography ideas come from. Then I explain why your voice cannot be built, only noticed, and why that makes attention the whole discipline. Other things I talk about: The 10-breath test most photographers will failWhy meditation is not about emptying your mind or ignoring your thoughtsHow to tell a useful idea from noise wearing an idea's clothingBeing present as a photographic skill nobody teachesThe honest caveats: what meditation will not do for your photographsHow to start with a few minutes a dayMessage 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. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus features https://www.mattjacob.co/insiders The App That Transformed My Art & Mind https://wakingup.sjv.io/c/7738181/3958771/54965 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

    Your Worst Thoughts Arrive Dressed as Your Best Ideas - Moments of Mood, 4.1
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4.9
out of 5
70 Ratings

About

The MOOD Podcast is a long-form conversation series exploring photography, creativity, identity, and the inner life of artists. Hosted by Matt Jacob, the show moves beyond technique and trends to examine why people make work, how creative voices are formed, and what it takes to sustain a meaningful artistic life. Through thoughtful, unhurried conversations with photographers, filmmakers, and creative thinkers from around the world, the podcast explores themes of process, mental health, ethics, purpose, legacy, and the tension between art and industry. Episodes are grounded, reflective, and often philosophical, offering listeners provocation of thought rather than formulaic answers to copy. The MOOD Podcast is less about instruction and more about understanding, aimed at emerging and established creatives who care not just about what they make, but why they make it.  At its core, The MOOD Podcast is the art of conversation, one frame at a time. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the_moodpodcast Instagram: @the_moodpodcast /@mattyj_ay Website: https://themoodpodcast.com

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Jacob
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    168
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Mood Moments Productions Ltd.
  • Show Website
    The MOOD Podcast

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