The MOOD Podcast

Matt Jacob
  • 4.9 (65)
  • Visual Arts
  • Updated 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. 3d ago

    Richard Sharum On 600 Deaths And His New Book 'American Homicide', E132

    In this week’s podcast episode you'll learn why the photographs you're most proud of are probably the ones hiding you, and what a documentary photographer who has stood at 600 deaths says it actually costs to make work that changes something. I sat down with Richard Sharum, the American documentary photographer behind Campesino Cuba, Spina Americana and the forthcoming American Homicide, all published by GOST Books, to talk about photography as an act of empathy, why he believes the photo industry has abandoned the general public, and what happened to him after a year embedded with 4 homicide squads and 8 prisons. We go from his childhood in a mixed-race, low-income Texas neighbourhood to the night police framed him at 16, the week in a children's cancer ward that raised over $1,000,000, the Magnum editor who threw out 45 of his 50 best Cuba photographs, and the depression that stopped him shooting for a while. Richard is direct about team mirror versus team window, about why he refuses to go to Paris Photo, and about the sacrifice he tells every student to expect before they pick up a camera for documentary work. Other things we discussed: Why he says photography was invented too early in our evolutionHurricane Katrina, 7 months after everyone leftCancer as an equaliser: a $10,000,000 house next to a trailer parkObjectivity is a fallacy; photographing like jazzThe grocery store practice for connectionChildhood photos of victims and murderers in the same bookThe image is the receipt, not the experienceThe famous photographer who admitted lying for accessHow a documentary photographer actually earns moneyOf Thee I Sing: the American trilogy and American Avenue (2028)Find Richard on his website and Instagram: https://richardsharum.com/ https://www.instagram.com/richard_sharum/ American Homicide Book: https://gostbooks.com/products/american-homicide 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

    Richard Sharum On 600 Deaths And His New Book 'American Homicide', E132

  2. Sep 3

    Work Does Not Speak For Itself - Moments of Mood, 4.0

    In this week’s Moments of Mood episode, you'll learn the 4 questions curators, juries, and publishers silently ask about every photography project, and how to answer them in 100 words so your work actually gets seen. I take apart the idea that photography speaks for itself, starting with the Vivian Maier story everyone gets backwards, and share what Shana Lopes, photography curator at SFMOMA, told me she actually needs to hear from an artist: why she has to defend every acquisition in front of a committee, her test of whether she can write about a project, and why "I just thought it looked good" ends the conversation. Then I get into the difference between explaining an image and articulating a body of work, and why keeping the mystery in your pictures means taking it out of your artist statement. Watch my full conversation with Shana Lopes here: https://youtu.be/XCSvy5AIGsA Watch part one of this commentary here: https://youtu.be/bURDv2Jps4M 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

    Work Does Not Speak For Itself - Moments of Mood, 4.0

  3. Aug 27

    Why Should Anyone Care About Your Photography? Shana Lopes, E130

    Learn exactly what an SFMOMA photography curator looks for, what she passes over, and how to get your work seen without an MFA, a gallery, or a 6-paragraph artist statement. I sat down with Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), to find out how photography actually enters a museum collection. Shana has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Center for Creative Photography, holds a PhD in the history of photography, and has spent over 7 years at SFMOMA curating exhibitions, acquiring work, and reviewing portfolios. We talked about how a curator decides which photographs get remembered, why she needs to be able to write about your work before she can acquire it, the one question every photography project has to answer, and the practical advice she gives emerging photographers trying to get exhibited, published, or noticed. Other things we discussed: What a curator actually does day to day, from wall texts to installation choreographyWhy she thinks about exhibition layouts musicallyCurating photobooks versus curating walls, and why she reads books from the backTrends in museum photography, and whether documentary is disappearingHow to write an artist statement a jury will actually readPortfolio reviews: what to bring, what not to say, and when to come backWhy an MFA isn't necessary but a community isAI, analog revival, and the art schools closing in San Francisco Find Shana on the SFMOMA website and Instagram: https://www.sfmoma.org/about/eteam-curatorial-staff/ https://www.instagram.com/lopesshana/ 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 Should Anyone Care About Your Photography? Shana Lopes, E130

  4. Aug 20

    Stop Explaining Your Photographs - Moments of Mood, 3.9

    In this Moments of Mood episode, I get into the question of whether we as photographers should explain our images or let them try and ‘speak for themselves’, why the readings you want to correct are actually a map to your photographic voice, and the two gaps every photograph has to cross, from Garry Winogrand's famous riddle to a passage in 'Art & Fear' by David Bayles and Ted Orland that reframes the distance between what you intended, what you made, and what people see. Other things I mention: The moment someone misreads your photo and the correction rises up in your chestWhy you're the one person who can't see your own work coldRepeated "wrong" readings as a pattern, not noiseWhat happens if both gaps close completely, and whether a perfect photograph would be worth looking atExplaining an image versus articulating a body of work, and why timing is the differenceMessage 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

    Stop Explaining Your Photographs - Moments of Mood, 3.9

  5. Aug 13

    Why Your Photos Are Boring - Photographer David Chancellor Explains..., E128

    On this episode, I sat down with David Chancellor, the award-winning documentary photographer behind ‘Hunters’, ‘Handle Like Eggs’, and the Taylor Wessing Prize-winning portrait ‘Huntress with Buck’, for a conversation about the moral grey areas of documentary photography, trophy hunting, wildlife conservation. David has spent decades photographing human-wildlife coexistence across Africa, sleeping beside trophy hunters for weeks at a time, documenting leopard hunting in Namibia that was later stopped, and turning the personal cost of that work, including the collapse of his marriage, into his most intimate project.  We talked about how beauty gets people to look at what they'd rather turn away from, why access matters more than gear, how a photographer builds trust over years instead of parachuting in, and his current project rewilding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the National Center for Wildlife. Watch this conversation and you'll understand how just one photograph can open a dialogue that could end an questionable pastime, and what it costs the person holding the camera. Other things we discussed: Getting fired from foreign exchange dealing and talking his way into photography school with "below average" workThe lion breeder who learned to see light and made the phone call behind the Taylor Wessing photoIf it pays, it stays: the brutal economics of wildlife conservationThe gamekeeper in Scotland whose hands kill deer and delivered his own sonWhether he has gone numb after decades of watching animals diePhotographing the birth, death, and compensation politics of community conservation in KenyaDavid Attenborough, his front door key, and the cost of a legendary lifeFilm versus digital, the Mamiya 7, and why he shoots one consistent formatAI, authenticity, and what photography loses when everything becomes contentFind David and his work online: https://www.davidchancellor.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chancellordavid/ 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 Photos Are Boring - Photographer David Chancellor Explains..., E128

  6. Aug 6

    One Photograph Is All You Get Now, and Why That's Good News for Photographers - Moments of Mood, 3.8

    Attention has collapsed, and every photographer feels it. In this Moments of Mood episode, I make the case that this might be the best thing to happen to serious photography in a generation. You'll learn why the photographers who matter from here on won't be the ones who make the most, they'll be the ones who compress the best: one photograph dense enough to stop a stranger mid-scroll and earn the second look. I break down what has actually broken in visual culture (the capacity to stay, not the capacity to look), why posting more is a hiding place, and how a single ambassador image is the doorway that gets your photobook, sequence, and body of work found. ___________________________ 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

    One Photograph Is All You Get Now, and Why That's Good News for Photographers - Moments of Mood, 3.8

  7. Jul 30

    Odette England Answers Every Photographer's Worst Fear, E126

    Odette England  makes her photographs and then damages them, and this conversation is about why that is the most honest thing she has ever done with her voice. Odette is an Australian artist, writer and photography professor at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, whose latest book Isn't X Beautiful is an autobiographical reckoning with family, memory and the limits of what a photograph can hold. We talk about growing up on a 200 acre dairy farm in rural South Australia where her father made Polaroid portraits of newborn calves for their birth certificates and her mother typed captions into family albums, and how those 2 modes of picture keeping shaped everything she has made since. We go into her definition of beauty, which is broken, rusty and forlorn rather than pretty, the year she asked her elderly parents to walk their lost farm with her negatives strapped to the soles of their shoes, why she believes photography is drenched in want, and what writing gives her that photography cannot. Odette talks openly about doubt, about being the least confident person in her own practice, about the drawers of failed work she now calls her box of potentials, and about the daily sentence habit that turned into something she never intended. We finish inside the critique room, on the questions she asks photographers who bring her work they cannot yet explain. Other things we discussed: Being refused entry to her school darkroom because she was a girlBeing the only woman in her classWhy the letter X sits at the centre of her book, and why the title ends in an exclamation markThe 170 English words for the act of seeingThe folly of memory, wrong captions, and choosing to remember the fictionHer image-based retelling of Susan Sontag's On PhotographyWhy she thinks moving forward is not always the right next stepWhat she sees in students of every age that worries her mostFind Odette on her website and Instagram: https://www.odetteengland.com https://www.instagram.com/odetteengland ___________________________________________________ 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

    Odette England Answers Every Photographer's Worst Fear, E126

  8. Jul 23

    How To Find Your Voice Without Building a Signature Style - Moments of Mood, 3.7

    In this Moments of Mood episode I sit with a single photograph from my own archive, one I made by accident in under ten seconds, and use it to unpack an idea Cristina Mittermeier gave me: that the photographer is not a messenger but a membrane, a semi-permeable skin whose job is to let a conversation pass between the subject and the stranger who will one day stand in front of the print. I look at why the pressure to have a signature style is muting your photography, why your creative voice is not a possession you transmit but the shape of what you let through, and how ego, not lack of talent, is what fragments an emerging photographer's work. There's a version of your portfolio where every frame is competent, consistent, technically strong, and somehow says nothing, and if you already know which images I mean, this episode is about why that happens and what your voice actually is instead. I also get into the book launch that turned Cristina from marine biologist into one of the most seen photographers alive, why technically flawless photographs can be strangely silent, the unnamed photographer whose prints sell the man rather than the animal, the division of labor between vanishing inside the frame and showing up loudly outside it, why a style can be copied by a preset pack while permeability cannot, and a one-frame practice to try this week. ______________________________ 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

    How To Find Your Voice Without Building a Signature Style - Moments of Mood, 3.7
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4.9
out of 5
65 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
    160
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Mood Moments Productions Ltd.
  • Show Website
    The MOOD Podcast

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