The MOOD Podcast

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 <e

The MOOD Podcast is a arts podcast hosted by Matt Jacob, with 163 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Matt Jacob hosts The MOOD Podcast, a arts show with 163 episodes published.

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  The MOOD Podcast

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

  Oct 1, 20261h 5m

  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 taking Moving from graphic design into photography What Fugazi taught him about doing things his own way The 5-minute critique that told him to keep going The story behind the mysterious animal photograph everyone asks about Why 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

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  The MOOD Podcast

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

  Sep 24, 20261h 1m

  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 camera Loading film holders as a grounding ritual inside a process full of unknowns Doing everything by hand, from developing by inspection to platinum printing, and why she never hires assistants Teaching analog photography to 18 and 20 year olds who want it Editing Italian Story from hundreds of negatives down to about 70 photographs The personal stories inside the book that the viewer will never know Larry Fink's foreword to As We Wait: sensual love aligned with darkness Why the print still matters in a world of screens and AI The myth of the suffering artist, and why trauma alone isn't complex Living inside the confusion of unfinished work Andrea 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

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  The MOOD Podcast

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

  Sep 10, 20261h 51m

  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 evolution Hurricane Katrina, 7 months after everyone left Cancer as an equaliser: a $10,000,000 house next to a trailer park Objectivity is a fallacy; photographing like jazz The grocery store practice for connection Childhood photos of victims and murderers in the same book The image is the receipt, not the experience The famous photographer who admitted lying for access How a documentary photographer actually earns money Of 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/ 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.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

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  The MOOD Podcast

  Stop Explaining Your Photographs - Moments of Mood, 3.9

  Aug 20, 202615 min

  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 chest Why you're the one person who can't see your own work cold Repeated "wrong" readings as a pattern, not noise What happens if both gaps close completely, and whether a perfect photograph would be worth looking at Explaining an image versus articulating a body of work, and why timing is the difference 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.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

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  The MOOD Podcast

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

  Aug 13, 20261h 18m

  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" work The lion breeder who learned to see light and made the phone call behind the Taylor Wessing photo If it pays, it stays: the brutal economics of wildlife conservation The gamekeeper in Scotland whose hands kill deer and delivered his own son Whether he has gone numb after decades of watching animals die Photographing the birth, death, and compensation politics of community conservation in Kenya David Attenborough, his front door key, and the cost of a legendary life Film versus digital, the Mamiya 7, and why he shoots one consistent format AI, authenticity, and what photography loses when everything becomes content Find 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.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99 Website: https://themoodpodcast.com Socials: IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay

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