The Terrible Creative

Patrick Fore
  • 4.7 (38)
  • DESIGN
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The Terrible Creative is a storytelling podcast for photographers, designers, and creative professionals working through the parts of the creative process no gear review or business course ever covers. Each episode is 30 to 40 minutes. Solo. Story-driven. Built around mental health, artistic identity, and what honest work costs in a career rewarding performance over truth. This is not a photography podcast about cameras, presets, or client strategy. This is a podcast about the inner experience of being a creative professional, made for the mid-career photographer or designer who has mastered the technical side but lost the thread. Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer, author, and former lead photographer and brand designer for Taylor Guitars. His work has appeared globally for clients like Nike, Petco, and Verizon. He built this show because none of the podcasts he found addressed the real problem. If you are a photographer or creative professional who feels competent on the outside and quietly lost on the inside, you are a Terrible Creative. This is your podcast.

  1. Clown Nose - What the Creator Economy Actually Costs a Working Creative

    22H AGO

    Clown Nose - What the Creator Economy Actually Costs a Working Creative

    There's a composite photographer in this episode named Nate. His details have been changed. His situation has not. This episode is about the creator economy — what it actually costs, who it was actually built for, and the quiet compromise most creative professionals are making every day. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just quietly, in parking garages, watching the blue light of a phone, waiting for a signal that isn't coming. I talk about the Gilded Age, the algorithm, and a system so elegant it doesn't need to be cruel. I also name something I've been avoiding saying out loud for a while. If this one lands close, send it to someone who needs to hear it. Nate is a composite character. Details altered to protect identity. THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    44 min
  2. Terrible Conversations - Tom Wright - Tom Wright on Creative Work and Photography

    5D AGO ·  BONUS

    Terrible Conversations - Tom Wright - Tom Wright on Creative Work and Photography

    Terrible Conversations w/ Tom Wright Tom Wright is a photography consultant based in Burnley, UK. He calls himself a phototherapist, and no, he's not a doctor. But photographers that work with him tend to leave unstuck. Tom started in 2011 teaching photographers how to shoot Impossible Project instant film. From there he shot weddings for over a decade, moved into commercial photography, and eventually traded client work for consulting after discovering that helping photographers was the thing that actually got him out of bed. In this conversation, we talk about what it means to develop a style versus chasing trends, why AI is eating the bottom of the photography market, and what most photographers are missing when they look at their own work. We also spend way too long talking about British food. You're welcome. What we get into: Why Tom calls himself a phototherapist and what that actually meansThe difference between fashion and style in photographyWhat bifurcation is doing to the industry right nowWhy the artists are still there, just quieterHow Tom identifies what's already working in someone's portfolioThe Polaroid workshops that started it allWhy commodity photography has a shrinking runwayWhat to do if you don't feel like you have anything interesting to sayFind Tom at bytomw.com and on Instagram at @bytomw. Consultations are free. Go get unstuck. ----- THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    1h 7m
  3. Stop Being A Tool - Why Creatives Were Never Just Useful

    MAY 12

    Stop Being A Tool - Why Creatives Were Never Just Useful

    We’ve spent a century conditioning ourselves to believe that if we aren’t "producing," we aren't "valuable." But in 2026, the machines can out-produce us all. This episode is about The Great Decoupling—the moment we stop being high-end processors and start being the source. We dive into the "Productivist Fallacy," why Maya and Chris are grieving the loss of their utility, and why your "Why" is the only proprietary data left that the machines can't touch. It’s time to move from being a resource to being the source. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Yale Budget Lab – March 2026 Report on Creative Automation.Immanuel Kant – The distinction between Instrumental and Intrinsic Value (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals).IDIBELL UB Brain Cognition Group – 2026 study in Advanced Science on human imaginative leaps.James Taylor – SuperCreativity and the concept of Centaurs vs. Cyborgs.THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    40 min
  4. The Cost of Getting Good - The Cost of Getting Good - How Success Becomes a Creative Trap for Creatives

    MAY 5

    The Cost of Getting Good - The Cost of Getting Good - How Success Becomes a Creative Trap for Creatives

    Getting good at your craft is supposed to be the goal. But for a lot of us, competence became the cage. This episode is about the feedback loop nobody warns you about: the better you get, the harder it is to leave. And what we build around the good thing to protect it. Also, some honesty about why I called this show "Terrible" that I haven't said out loud before. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville (1853) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot (1915) Robert Berglas - Self-Handicapping research THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It's part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Terrible-Photographer-Photography-Probably/dp/B0GRGLYKYS/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 LINKS Website: http://terriblephotographer.com Support the show: https://www.terriblephotographer.com/support Subscribe to Pub Notes: https://the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terriblephotographer/ Patrick on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickfore/Email Patrick : patrick@terriblephotographer.com Email is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    31 min
  5. Subterranean - On Obsession, Part II

    APR 28

    Subterranean - On Obsession, Part II

    Where does creative obsession actually come from? Not how to manufacture it. Not how to find it on a vision board. Where it actually lives. How it grows underground without your permission. And what it sounds like when it finally tries to break through. This episode is the follow up to Episode 61: Obsessed. If you haven't listened to that one yet, start there. This week I go back to a specific moment. Sixteen years old, a Mac G5, a cosmos built from scratch in a high school art room in Freeport Illinois. Two strangers from the Art Institute of Chicago who saw something I didn't. And then the long, complicated story of what happened to that signal when the framework got louder than I did. We also get into David Lynch, Jon Batiste, the 19th century psychology of monomania, and a John Updike line that I think is one of the most honest things ever said about what separates artists from entertainers. Clips used in this episode: David Lynch on his childhood memory that inspired Blue Velvet Jon Batiste on being misunderstood his first year at Juilliard WALL-E opening sequence Music: OK Go, Obsession Lessons From A Terrible Photographer is available now on Amazon. Get your copy here Website Support the show Subscribe to Pub Notes, the newsletter Terrible Photographer on Instagram Patrick Fore on Instagram Email: patrick@terriblephotographer.com Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    43 min
  6. Obsessed - Finding Your Creative Voice When the Algorithm Rewards Everyone Else's

    APR 21

    Obsessed - Finding Your Creative Voice When the Algorithm Rewards Everyone Else's

    What separates a photographer who makes important work from one who just makes good photos? It might not be talent. It might not be gear. It might be something harder to name and harder to fake. This week I walked into an APA Peer-to-Peer Photo Book Critique in San Diego with six copies of my own book, a smug attitude, and some assumptions that didn't survive the first thirty minutes. What I saw that night from two photographers, Michele Zousmer and Andrew Hertel, forced me to sit with a question I keep asking about other people's work but rarely ask about my own. Who is this for? And what drove you to make it? This episode is about obsession. What it looks like when it's real. What it costs. And what it means when you've been swimming in borrowed obsessions long enough that you stop noticing. People and work mentioned in this episode: Michele Zousmer, documentary photographer. Her Irish Travellers project is some of the most honest and important photography I've seen in years. Website: michelezousmer.com Instagram: @michelezousmerphoto Andrew Hertel, fine art nature photographer based in San Diego. His Japan book White Silence was made in a single day in Hokkaido. It shows. Website: andrewhertel.com Instagram: @andrewjameshertel This week's clip is from @dishcreates on YouTube, talking about choosing a new artistic obsession. Worth your time. Lessons From A Terrible Photographer is available now on Amazon. Get your copy here: https://a.co/d/0aqcL8Rq Website: terriblephotographer.com Support the show: terriblephotographer.com/support Subscribe to Pub Notes, the newsletter: the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Terrible Photographer on Instagram: @terriblephotographer Patrick Fore on Instagram: @patrickfore Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Episode photography from Adobe StockRecorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    41 min
  7. The Unknown - The Version of Yourself Nobody Has Seen Yet

    APR 14

    The Unknown - The Version of Yourself Nobody Has Seen Yet

    This is the last one. Four episodes. Four quadrants. Four different ways of asking the same question: who are you — really — when nobody's grading you? In the final episode of the Johari Window series, Patrick texts eight people the same question without defining the word first. A photographer in Texas who's bored at events but wants the money. A friend who performs down to what shoes she puts on. A pastor in Iowa who said he doesn't feel fake — and then sent a follow-up voice note from a friend's house over Long Island iced teas that changed everything. Not one person said they don't perform. Not one. The Unknown is the fourth quadrant. In the original model it was framed as a limitation — territory nobody has access to. Patrick thinks that's the wrong way to look at it. Especially for creatives. Especially for people making personal work in the gaps between the jobs that pay the rent. This episode is about the version of yourself that exists underneath all the other versions. The one that neither you nor anyone else has fully seen yet. The one that isn't always good. Isn't always safe. Isn't always received. And why you might make something from there anyway. In this episode: Eight people, one question, no definition provided. What performing actually means when you ask people who have been doing it their whole lives. The pastor who works every day to keep two versions of himself close enough to touch. The stylist Patrick hired because he fell for the full version of her on Instagram — and what the transaction cost. The irony of finding more of yourself in a podcast garage than in a building founded on the radical idea that humans should show up whole. The serial killer problem and the Pokemon Go executive — and the question neither of them can answer. Why the Johari Window isn't a self-help tool. It's a mirror. And mirrors show you everything. The 16 year old, the 21 year old, the 31 year old — and who Patrick has been making this for all along. The Johari Window — the complete series: Episode 57 — The Glass House: The Arena. Visibility versus being known. Episode 58 — The Tell: The Blind Spot. What everyone around you already knows. Episode 59 — The Facade: What you hide. What it costs. Episode 60 — The Unknown: The version of yourself that doesn't exist yet. And why you make something anyway. On Harrington: Back in episode one Patrick pushed back on the model. Said the Arena requires two people. That you can't open the door alone and expect to be known. He still believes that. But Harrington was right about the window itself. It's neutral. It's just glass. It shows you what's there. It doesn't tell you which parts are good and which are dangerous. It doesn't sort the rooms for you. What you do with what you see — that's on you. If this series landed somewhere: Email Patrick. He reads everything and responds to most of it. The emails that cost something to send are the ones he remembers longest. patrick@terriblephotographer.com Connect: Website: terriblephotographer.comThe Book — Lessons From A Terrible Photographer: terriblephotographer.com/the-book Support the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportNewsletter — Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Instagram — The Terrible Creative: @terriblephotographer Instagram — Patrick Fore: @patrickfore The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Episode photography from Adobe Stock and Unsplash. Recorded from a garage in San Diego, California.

    43 min
  8. The Facade - The Gap Between What You Show and What's Actually Driving the Work

    APR 7

    The Facade - The Gap Between What You Show and What's Actually Driving the Work

    Episode 59: "The Facade" The Johari Window Series — Part Three Some weeks Patrick knows exactly why he's making this podcast. Other weeks he almost quits. This week he almost quit. In Episode 59, Patrick pulls back the frame on the third quadrant of the Johari Window — the Facade — and what it actually costs creative professionals to maintain the gap between what they show and what's driving the showing. The polished portfolio. The confident host voice. The finished frame with the 400 failed shots cropped out. This isn't an episode about lying. It's about omission. And about what happens when you build a professional identity around a creative practice that has no letter grade, no client approval, no clean signal telling you whether what you're making is landing or disappearing into silence. Patrick talks about Episode 7 — the color theory episode where he ran out of ideas and made something anyway. About the specific loneliness of having no one to call mid-crisis who has the context to help. About talking creative decisions through with AI because that's what the forest looks like sometimes. About the analytics graph that will eventually reduce this episode — this specific vulnerable, costly, self-inflicted colonoscopy of an episode — to a data point. And about why he kept walking anyway. In this episode: The almost-abandoned Johari series — what Patrick was going to make instead and what made him stay. The Facade as omission — how showing only the product accidentally creates a culture of impostors. The feedback loop problem — why the podcast is the hardest creative work Patrick has ever done to measure, and what his brain does in the absence of data. The AI collaborator admission — the specific loneliness of having context nobody else has. The difference between performed vulnerability and actual vulnerability — and why Patrick monitors that line constantly. The color theory episode — what episode 7 actually proved about whether the podcast could survive without a plan. The forest — the dim flickering light, the disappearing trail, and the thing that terrifies Patrick more than getting lost. The Johari Window — where we are: Episode 57 — The Glass House: The Arena. Visibility versus being known. Episode 58 — The Tell: The Blind Spot. What everyone around you already knows. Episode 59 — The Facade: What you hide. What it costs. Coming up — The Unknown. The three words that describe this episode: Bleeding. Silence. Walking. If this one felt uncomfortably familiar: That's the episode working. Email Patrick. He reads everything. Some weeks your email is the only signal he gets that any of this is landing. No pressure. But also — no pressure. Connect:Email Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.com Website: terriblephotographer.com The Book — Lessons From A Terrible Photographer: terriblephotographer.com/the-bookSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/support Newsletter — Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Instagram — The Terrible Creative: @terriblephotographer Instagram — Patrick Fore: @patrickfore The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Episode photography from Adobe Stock and Unsplash. Recorded from a garage in San Diego, California.

    46 min
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Trailer

4.7
out of 5
38 Ratings

About

The Terrible Creative is a storytelling podcast for photographers, designers, and creative professionals working through the parts of the creative process no gear review or business course ever covers. Each episode is 30 to 40 minutes. Solo. Story-driven. Built around mental health, artistic identity, and what honest work costs in a career rewarding performance over truth. This is not a photography podcast about cameras, presets, or client strategy. This is a podcast about the inner experience of being a creative professional, made for the mid-career photographer or designer who has mastered the technical side but lost the thread. Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer, author, and former lead photographer and brand designer for Taylor Guitars. His work has appeared globally for clients like Nike, Petco, and Verizon. He built this show because none of the podcasts he found addressed the real problem. If you are a photographer or creative professional who feels competent on the outside and quietly lost on the inside, you are a Terrible Creative. This is your podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick Fore
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    68
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Patrick Fore Photography, LLC
  • Show Website
    The Terrible Creative

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