The MOOD Podcast

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 day
Giving a ride to a barefoot stranger who became his mentor
Turning down Trespasser, and how it still led to the book
Editing Paraíso in Paradise Valley with Bryan Schutmaat, Matthew Genitempo and Harrison Miller
Shooting intuitively, before you know what the story is
A daily practice of 3 questions and 3 gratitudes
His new project photographing strangers while they sleep
Emiliano’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

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 empty
Non-attachment, and being the blue sky behind the rainbows and the rain
What gives a photograph its charge
The Body Keeps the Score, and small ways to practise presence
Shame, the defectiveness schema and the 3 ways we cope: surrender, avoidance and overcompensation
MDR, schema therapy, compassion focused therapy and internal family systems
The question Zahra would ask to open the door to all of this inner work
Listen 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

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

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 Ada
How Trespasser started between friends
Portfolio reviews, and shifting your expectations about book deals
Why the photobook world is more reachable than it looks
Pacing a photobook so people slow down
The dead internet theory and the future of photobooks
His 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

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