Belle Gibson faked cancer. The Stauffers rehomed their adopted son when the content became too difficult. Ruby Franke is currently sitting in a prison cell.

It’s easy to look at the monsters of the influencer economy and think, "I am nothing like them." But if you peel back the layers of how we document our own lives, the difference might be smaller than we’d like to admit.

In this episode, we dig into the "Curator's Disease"—the urge to professionalize our own existence. We look at how commercial production techniques have trickled down from ad agencies to our Saturday mornings, how we reverse-engineer our lives to fit a "Lululemon" aesthetic, and the exhausted reality of treating your family like supporting cast members.

We discuss the difference between capturing a beautiful moment and interrupting a life to manufacture one. It’s time to get out of the Director’s Chair.

In this episode:

• The Monsters: Why the Ruby Franke and LaBrant Family stories aren't just isolated tragedies, but symptoms of a wider infection.
• The Lululemon Brain Worm: How commercial "lifestyle" marketing taught us to fake our own weekends.
• The Composite Client: Patrick breaks down a real commercial shoot to show how "authenticity" is manufactured in a conference room.
• The Interruption: The critical difference between seeing beautiful light and forcing your kids to stand in it.
• The Unpaid Internship: Why you’re exhausted from trying to hit commercial production standards on a home-video budget.

Connect with The Terrible Photographer:

• Website: The Terrible Photographer
• The Newsletter: Sign up for Pub Notes – Musings, updates, and things I probably shouldn't say in public.
• Support the Show: Help keep the lights on
• Email the Host: patrick@terriblephotographer.com – Questions, hate mail, and existential spirals are all welcome.

Credits:

• Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions.
• Episode Artwork licensed through Adobe Stock.
• Written and Produced by Patrick Fore

June 6, 1944. Robert Capa is wading through the freezing water of Omaha Beach. He captures the most important images of the 20th century, and technically, they are a disaster. They are blurry. They are grainy. They are imperfect. And that is exactly why they matter.

In this episode, Patrick explores the physics of light, the "hostage negotiation" of the exposure triangle, and why we are so terrified of grain. We look at how the market has colonized our vision, leading us to trade atmosphere for information and "safe" images for honest ones.

Most importantly, Patrick confesses to "art directing" his own daughter's childhood—prioritizing perfect light over real memories—and asks if it's possible to trade competence back for presence.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The story of the "Magnificent Eleven" and Robert Capa’s D-Day photos.
• The Physics of Light: Why the exposure triangle is a hostage situation.
• Why ISO is like the volume knob on cheap speakers.
• The "Cultural Clean": Why Instagram and modern cinema feel so flat.
• A personal confession: Killing the moment to save the exposure.
• Why "Denoise" is the enemy of the soul.

Support the Show: If you enjoy these ramblings, or if this episode made you feel slightly less guilty about your grainy photos, consider fueling the next one. You can buy me a coffee (or let's be honest, a beer) to help keep the mics on and the existential spirals coming.

• Fuel the Mess: terriblephotographer.com/support

Links & Resources:

• Website: terriblephotographer.com
• Email the Show: patrick@terriblephotographer.com — Send questions, thoughts, or hate mail. I read everything.

Credits:

• Episode Photo: Hulki Okan Tabak
• Music: Blue Dot Sessions
• Sound Effects: Epidemic Sound

In 1863, the Paris Salon rejected Édouard Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass for being too messy, too flat, too "unfinished." Today, it's one of the most important paintings in art history. Meanwhile, the "perfect" paintings that won the medals? Nobody remembers them.

In this episode, we're deconstructing the biggest question photographers face: What makes a photo "good"? How do we measure it? Who decides? And why do we keep building portfolios that are technically perfect but emotionally dead?

This is the first episode in a new mid-week series called "Basics, Deconstructed" we take the elementary concepts of photography and tear them down until we find the bone.

In This Episode:

• Why technical perfection is the enemy of art
• The difference between "High Notes" (sharpness, perfect skin tones) and "Bass Notes" (the blur, the shadow, the grit)
• What happened when an art buyer tore apart my "perfect" portfolio
• How to stop shooting out of fear and start shooting out of soul
• The hardest lesson: being shrewd enough to interrupt the performance

Key Quote:

"I don't hire photographers to be commercial. I hire technicians to be sharp. I hire photographers to make me feel something."

Contact & Support:

📧 Email: patrick@terriblephotographer.com
(Questions, thoughts, hate mail—I respond to everything.)

🎵 Music: epidemicsound.com

☕ Support the show: https://www.terriblephotographer.com/support

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terriblephotographer

📬 Newsletter (Pub Notes): https://the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb