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I think one of the things that made Father Bill Moore so important to me was the fact that he was one of a small group of non-family members and non-friends to say that I had talent as a painter and that I had something to say with my work and he was one of an even smaller group of people who I would consider a mentor in my life. This is probably something for another time, but I don’t think you can seek out a mentor — not intentionally and not with any real specificity in terms of who that person will be. That’s the way I feel about all of the mentors in my life. I never sought them out, but somehow our paths crossed and my life was made better for it. And hopefully theirs were too. SHOW NOTES Father Bill Moore – https://frbillmoore.com/ The Father Bill Moore Foundation – https://fatherbill.art The dA Center for the Arts – https://www.dacenter.org Pomona Arts Colony – https://www.pomonaartscolony.com Music in this episode Reconciled by Sean Williams The Wrong Way by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0) Music featured in this episode is licensed from Artlist, which is a terrific music licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS | Spotify Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter

As many of you know, I currently produce three different podcasts, each with a different format and purpose. Process Driven is a deep-dive conversation with a single artist to talk about what they do and why they do it. In Between is a conversation with a recurring group of co-hosts around a single topic or theme. Iterations is my audio journal — it’s shorter than the other two shows and it’s just me offering up thoughts or reflections around what I’ve recently been thinking about or trying to work through. As I said, each of these shows offers a different listening experience, but in many ways I see them as part of the same larger, ongoing conversation. As you might expect, each of the three shows has its own feed and if you want all of them, until last year you had to subscribe to all three individually. But early in 2020 I looked a little deeper at how people were listening to podcasts, and what I found was that most people don’t listen to every episode of every podcast they subscribe to. I know I don’t. Instead, they create playlists — cherry picking episodes from within a given show or even across multiple shows, which is exactly why I created my “Everything” feed. Listeners could now get all three shows, along with any one-off conversations or any future shows in one feed instead of multiples and they could just add episodes of my shows into the playlists they were already making. My plan from the beginning was to ultimately deprecate the individual show feeds and JUST have Everything. I even confirmed it again in an episode I put out in January called “Setting the Intention for 2021.” But the more I think about it and the more Adrianne and I talk about it, the more I’m questioning whether killing off the individual feeds is the best way forward. On the one hand, I can see where if you were unfamiliar with my shows — both past and present — and you went to my website for the first time, you might be a little confused seeing three different shows that, at least on the surface, all seem to deal with creativity and the creative process in one form or another. On the other, maybe you are familiar with the me and my back catalog but you just aren’t interested in my monologues or random conversations and you only want to hear my conversations with other creatives deep diving their process. Either way, having only a single feed for all that I do — despite my intentions behind it — might not be what you want as a listener. And one thing that I have learned from Adrianne is to meet people where they are, which means that if you are really only into one show, I don’t want to risk losing you as a listener because I’m forcing you to subscribe to shows that don’t really interest you. That doesn’t serve either of us. Look, I would love it if everyone listened to everything I released – and maybe that’s a goal I can shoot for – but I need to earn it. So, for now, I’m going to keep all of the individual feeds active and keep trying to meet you where you are. CONNECT WITH ME If you’ve got questions or feedback, you can connect with me on Twitter and Instagram @jefferysaddoris. If you’d prefer something more direct, you can email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.com. Music in this episode Funk It Up by Steve Poloni In the Clouds by Be Still the Earth Music in this episode is licensed from Artlist, which is a terrific music and sound effects licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS | Spotify | Google Podcasts Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter

Like many of you, I could not be happier to finally be rid of the raging dumpster fire that was 2020. I know the next year will be anything but easy, but I am cautiously optimistic that 2021 will be filled with new possibilities and chances to do things a little differently than last year. I started doing yoga about a month ago and Adrianne reminded me that there’s a concept in yoga about setting an intention at the beginning of a practice and while I’m not a fan of resolutions per se, I wanted to share a few things today that I’ve been thinking about for a while as a way of setting my intentions for the year ahead. To that end, I want to let you know about some of the changes that I’m making both personally and professionally moving forward. Let’s start with my shows. Early in 2020 I created a new feed called “Jeffery Saddoris: Everything” as a way for you to get everything I release, including Process Driven, In Between, Iterations, and any sort of one-off conversation, like the recent chat with Bill Wadman, all in one place. The response to that feed has been terrific – in fact subscriptions to the individual feeds have dropped off considerably as subscriptions to Everything have increased. It’s not one to one, but it’s enough that I’m going to deprecate the individual show feeds so that moving forward, I will only be publishing new episodes to Jeffery Saddoris: Everything. If you’re already subscribed to Everything, great. You will continue to get all of the episodes that I release, which should be not only easier to manage under just one feed but also more frequent since I don’t have to try to figure out where a particular conversation fits. If you are subscribed to one or more of the individual show feeds, please subscribe to Everything so you don’t miss anything moving forward. And I want you to know that I’ve thought about this quite a bit. I know there are some of you who might only want to listen to Process Driven and this move might initially feel like kind of a bummer. But, I think the way we listen to podcasts has changed, partially because there are so many. I know it’s definitely changed for me over the last few years. I subscribe to dozens of shows and only a very few do I listen to every episode. Instead, I simply create playlists of the episodes that look interesting to me, and the trends show that I’m not in the minority here. One of the things I’ve struggled with for quite a while is monetizing the work I do – and that goes for all of the work I do, from design work for clients to selling my paintings to whether or not to run ads on my podcasts. And without getting too deep into it here, it all revolves around self-worth and how I assign or ascribe value to the work I do. But I think I’ve come up with a solution that Adrianne and I have been talking about for a while now. A few days ago I tweeted a Venn diagram with creativity on one side and philanthropy on the other and that place in the middle of those two things is where I want to be. So the solution we’ve come up with is that we’re going to donate the majority of any revenue that my creative endeavors generate into arts education and related non-profits. We’ll have details on the actual organizations soon, but the big picture is that this allows me to value the work I do in a way other than what it can do for me. It actually becomes more valuable in that the worth of it directly helps more than just me. I’m incredibly excited about it and again more details are forthcoming but that’s the big picture. I think that’s enough for the moment. As I said, I’ll have more details around all of this in the coming weeks. If you have questions or comments, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram @jefferysaddoris. You can also email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.com. As always, thank you for your time and your attention and for coming along with me on this ride. Happy New Year.   Music in this episode: DuDa by Ian Post All of the music featured in this episode is licensed from Artlist.io, which is a terrific music licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist.io free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe to my show: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS | Spotify Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter

If you’re listening to this show, or any of my shows really, chances are you are a maker of some sort. And if you are, I bet on at least a few occasions over the past several months, you’ve had one of those days. The days where at best it’s hard to stay focused on the making and at worst you’re asking yourself why the fuck you should even get out of bed. And you know what? Either way, it’s okay. I know that when I’m in that place it’s really hard to hear it let alone believe it, but I’m gonna say it again, so listen closely. It’s okay. It’s okay that you haven’t created your magnum opus in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s okay that the myriad of natural and man-made dumpster fires burning around the world are pulling your focus and attention away from taking pictures or making paintings or writing that novel. It’s okay. CORRECTION: Rumours is the eleventh album by Fleetwood Mac, not the tenth as I stated in the episode. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSS   SHOW NOTES On Taking Pictures 43: Artistic Monkhood – https://5by5.tv/otp/43 SADDORIS LIVE – https://youtube.com/jefferysaddoris Process Driven 25: Ondřej Vachek – https://jefferysaddoris.com/everything/processdriven-25/ Fleetwood Mac: Rumors – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumours_(album) Jackson Pollock – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock Vivian Maier – http://www.vivianmaier.com/ If you enjoy listening to Process Driven, please consider leaving a review or a rating wherever you listen to help others discover the show. Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter

If you’ve listened to any of my shows before, you know that I spend a fair bit of time talking about creativity, both in the literal and in the abstract. I’m fascinated by how and why we create. Why for some, the need to express who they — we — are is as important to the human experience as taking a breath. Questions around creativity inform many of the conversations I have — whether or not I’m rolling tape — what I read and even some of the things I watch. For example, this morning I watched a TED Talk by Ethan Hawke. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a FAN of Ethan Hawke, per se, although I’ve seen Gattaca a half-dozen times and he was great in Training Day with Denzel Washington. Anyway, like I said, I’m not a huge fan but I do have massive respect for the choices he makes as an artist. I mean, just scanning through his filmography reminds you of some of the often unexpected and occasionally brilliant left turns he’s made in his career. And whether or not a project did well at the box office or was acclaimed by the critics, he seems to get something out of everything he does and watching this TED Talk sort of reaffirmed that notion and it might even give you something to think about as you try to go deeper into your own creative process and self-expression as an artist and frankly as a human. At one point in the talk , he says, “To express ourselves we have to know ourselves. What do you love? And if you get close to what you love who you are is revealed to you and it expands.” Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSS   SHOW NOTES Give Yourself Permission to be Creative | Ethan Hawke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRS9Gek4V5Q David Bowie on why you should never play to the gallery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbnef_eXBM David Bowie – Blackstar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter Check out: my Patreon account

 What happens next? That’s the question isn’t it? It’s something I get asked a lot, especially lately, both from friends and from strangers. I wish I had an answer but honestly I’m still spending a fair bit of time struggling to answer “what now?” I’m sure most of you are thinking about it too and maybe you even have an answer. Eventually, we’ll all have to think about it. What happens when we can go outside — without a mask — to grab dinner with family and friends, go to the movies, see a baseball game and just get back to something resembling normal? But, what does normal even look like in the wake of this? Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSS SHOW NOTES If you’re a gamer—and even if you’re not—the tech demo for Unreal Engine 5 running on the PS5 is pretty damn impressive. The level of detail that’s possible is just incredible and in many ways it’s a quantum leap over the already impressive Unreal Engine 4, which in addition to being used to power AAA games was also used to create the virtual environments on Disney’s The Mandelorian. PS5 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo – YouTube CNN posted a terrific piece highlighting a site called Trailblazers of Light, which celebrates women in photojournalism. More than 500 photojournalists are featured on the site, from Frances Benjamin Johnston who began working as a freelance photographer in the 1890s to Linsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME magazine. It’s a fascinating resource. Home – Trailblazers of Light And finally, I don’t know a lot about musicology or music theory, but I know enough to be able to recognize what a musical monster Jacob Collier is. His latest video All I Need is an homage to 70s Stevie Wonder funktastic goodness. The melodies that he comes up with continuously amaze me. If you want more after watching the video for All I Need, check out the Tiny Desk Concert from last year. Jacob Collier: All I Need (with Mahalia & Ty Dolla $ign) – YouTube Jacob Collier: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert – YouTube Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0   WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I’M DOING? Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast – YouTube Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter Check out: my Patreon account

Do you know the Serenity prayer? Even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve likely heard it. It goes: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.” Originally written as part of a sermon in the 1930s by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Serenity prayer has been adopted by a number of twelve-step programs, most notably Alcoholics Anonymous. Regardless of whether or not you are religious or part of a twelve-step program, the core of the Serenity prayer – change and acceptance – are ideas that virtually everyone struggles with at one point or another. I know I do. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show. LINKS Regina Gimenez The Price of Everything Under the (Ray) Gun: Chris Ashworth   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

In the last Iteration I talked about the importance of giving yourself little victories in the work that you do — tiny wins that you can finish in a day or two that can often re-energize you or jumpstart your creative momentum on larger, more time-consuming projects. In this episode, I want to share a couple of examples of little wins that I’ve given myself in the last week. You may have noticed — or you may not have, and that’s okay too — but I’ve given the cover art for each of my three current podcasts a slight redesign. They still have a similar feel to the previous versions, but they all work together a bit better and feel more on point with my overall design aesthetic if that makes sense. I’ve also made some tweaks to my website — nothing really major, but I’ve tweaked the fonts and the color palette so there’s a bit more visual cohesion between the design of the show covers and the site. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show. LINKS My Blue Note playlist on Spotify Orba by Artiphon Dark and Stormy icebox cake   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

We’re getting close to the end of the year and if you’re like me, you’re already looking ahead to 2020 – maybe you have been for a while – trying to come up with some great new project or maybe multiple projects that will make the next year better than this one. I love the idea of big projects and in fact I’ve already started laying the groundwork for what’s looking more and more like the biggest solo project of my career – but while I’m more excited about it than I’ve been about anything in a while, I’m also terrified that I won’t be able to pull it off or that it will end up being less than what I think it could or should be. Big projects are great when you finish them but, man, they can be a slog. And typically the bigger the project, the more we hope or expect from it in terms of response once we actually do finish it. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating where you listen to podcasts to help others discover the show. LINKS https://www.charliecliftphotography.com The Beastie Boys book David Hurn Documentary on BBC Two    Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

My dad and I never really did a lot together when I was growing up. I mean, yes I spent summers with him and my stepmother Linda in Arizona but it was always with a group of people – and don’t get me wrong, it was a terrific way to spend the summer. But rarely was it ever just the two of us. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show. LINKS Charmolipi: joy making sorrow – Full FIlm An Intimate Look Inside The Art Studio Of Scott Avett Color Grading Netflix’s Mindhunter   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Earlier this week, Adrianne and I watched the first episode of the new season of Abstract on the Netflix . For those of you who haven’t seen it, Abstract is a fantastic show about art and design. It follows roughly the same format as something like Chef’s Table — which is also an excellent show — where each episode profiles a specific artist or designer. Last season included Tinker Hatfield, Paula Scher, and Platon among others and this season starts out with someone who I’ve never heard of by name though I have seen his work. Olafur Eliasson is an artist and architect whose large scale works are focused and really dependent on the user or viewer’s experience of them. Many of his works center around light — specifically, the effects and manipulation of light. For example, one of his earlier pieces is called “Beauty” and it was his attempt to create a rainbow by lighting a gentle waterfall of very fine mist. The effect was such that no two people experience exactly the same rainbow, since the color and intensity are based entirely on your viewing angle relative to the mist. “This is a space totally dependent on you being there,” Olafur says. “When you leave the exhibition, and there’s no-one in the room, there’s also no art.” This idea is really core to Olafur’s art — the Why of his art, if you will. Each piece he makes is a sort of challenge. As he puts it, “do I trust my own eyes and my own capacity to engage in the world?” His work is completely dependent on the spectator. It’s a collaboration –maybe even a conversation – between him as the artist and us as the viewer. Even his episode of Abstract is a collaboration, beginning with Olafur breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the camera — to us — as he presents the conditions of our collaboration. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show.   LINKS Abstract: The Art of Design https://olafureliasson.net   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Adrianne and I were in the car the other day — I don’t remember where we were going but I do remember that we were listening to Classic Vinyl on XM because we both really dig Meg Griffin. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys by Traffic came on and whatever conversation we were in the middle of stopped and we just listened to this incredible song written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi. If you’ve never heard the track, it’s basically a twelve minute jam that ebbs and flows in dynamics and complexity with a 24-year-old Winwood singing over the top of it. The musicianship is fantastic and listening to it got us talking about creative complexity and how looking at or listening to something that is artistically or technically just out of our reach can be wildly inspiring, both as a fan and as a maker. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show.   LINKS The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (YouTube) Robert Rauschenberg Mark Rothko Cy Twombly Echo in the Canyon Brian Eno Pet Sounds   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

A couple weeks ago, I had a terrific conversation with an artist whose work I’ve admired for years. And while it was a treat to get to talk to someone who has inspired me for decades, the work was only a small part of the conversation. Instead, we just talked. We connected straight away and what was meant to be a quick phone call just to say hello ahead of a potential episode of Process Driven ended up being a two hour conversation about everything from family and our respective childhoods to love, loss, Studio 54, JK Rowling, and even musings on the nature of art. On more than one occasion and typically after a particularly interesting exchange, one of us would comment, “man, we should be recording this.” But instead we chose to just keep enjoying the experience — a one-off conversation between nascent friends. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS This month, a brand new record from John Coltrane comes out. Blue World was recorded with Coltrane’s Classic Quartet in 1964 between Crescent and A Love Supreme. Ahead of the September 27th launch, Universal has released a gorgeous video that really captures the look and feel of some of the iconic Reid Miles covers. One of my favorite recent television shows is called The Boys, which is adapted from the comic by Garth Ennis, a monster in comics who also created Preacher and wrote The Punisher, Hellblazer and a bunch of other books. His latest project is a six-issue series called SARA, which tells the story of seven female snipers who find themselves caught up in a deadly struggle against an evil German invader. The series has been called a masterclass in comics storytelling and one of the finest works of his career. Robert Frank died Monday at the age of 94. He was one of the most influential photographers in the game and his book The Americans inspired almost every other famous photographer you could think of. If you’ve ever considered pursuing photography he’s a photographer whose work you’ll definitely want to know.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Not too long ago, I was having a conversation with David duChemin about subject as it relates to photography — specifically, some of the differences between photographs of a subject, versus photographs about a subject. It can feel like a tricky distinction but moving from one to the other can really elevate the work that you produce. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Daniel Rozin is an artist and professor at NYU who builds incredible mechanical mirrors out of materials like metal, wood, and even trash that respond to the viewer’s movements. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and to mark the occasion, NASA has completely restored mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to exactly how it was in 1969, down to period coffee mugs, ashtrays, rotary phones, and carpet to recreate it as accurately as possible. Johnson Space Center director Mark Geyer said “I’m thrilled this facility will be open for the public to view. It is my hope that it will serve as inspiration for generations to come.” NPR posted a fascinating article about a team of scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who are investigating the amount of micro plastics in the Deep Ocean. According to chief scientist Kyle Van Houten, data suggests that there’s actually more plastic in the Deep Ocean than there is in the giant floating patches on the surface, which is pretty staggering. Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

I had something else planned for this episode, but I got a little surprise in the mail and decided to go in a different direction. On Wednesday of last week, as I went to take Cooper on his ten o’ clock walk, I noticed a big padded envelope on the front porch with the words “UNSOLICITED GIFT” written on the outside. Now, I can be a little strange about gifts, even the ones I know are coming, so when one just shows up anonymously I sometimes don’t know how to react. Fortunately, Adrianne was working from home that day and was able to offer some sage advice that wasn’t as obvious as it probably should have been as I stood there staring at the package. “Well,” she said, “the only way you’re gonna know what it is is to open it.” Right. Inside, wrapped in newspaper, was the gift itself and an envelope that contained a card. I’ll get to the what in a moment, but first I want to address the why, because without the why, the what isn’t nearly as meaningful. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Here’s a terrific article from The New York Times Magazine called The Day the Music Burned, which tells the story of the 2008 Universal fire that destroyed the original analog and multitrack recordings of nearly a half million songs, some dating back to the 1940s. I’ve just picked up Adam Savage’s new book, Every Tool’s a Hammer and one of the reasons I did is because I read an article on Wired that featured an excerpt from the book all about the power of making lists and how Adam’s list making life changed when he started working at Industrial Light & Magic. In an article on Witness, Lewis Bush addresses “why there is such a poverty of theory about storytelling in photography compared to other fields, and why there is so little precision about the terms and techniques we use. Why, for example, are so few photographers able to differentiate between such fundamentally different things as story and narrative.” It’s a fascinating read that definitely has me thinking about the type of work I’d like to produce moving forward.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

As many of you know, three weeks ago today I had surgery on my eyes to correct a muscle imbalance and while the physical recovery has been fairly uneventful, the emotional and existential healing has been incredibly profound. The condition is called Strabismus and basically what happens is that the eyes don’t focus or track together. Let me explain…In the center of the retina, there’s an area called the macula which is basically the functional center of the retina where straight ahead images are processed. Within the macula is a spot called the fovea where the cones are at their highest concentration and it’s here where the image is meant to focus at its sharpest. In most people, if the eyes are tracking together, those two sharp images are combined to create binocular vision. In my case, my right eye was off axis—it was turned in—so the image didn’t focus on the fovea and when my brain tried to combine the two images, since they didn’t match up, I didn’t have binocular vision. Think of it like this—if my left eye was looking straight ahead, my right eye would be looking about 20-30 degrees off axis to the left. My brain would then try to combine those images into one, but since they didn’t match up, it would leave me with this somewhat fragmented almost double exposure type of view and would finally just give up and basically disregard the image data from my right eye. There are a number of different types of Strabismus, depending on what the eyes are doing. When one or both eyes converge in, it’s called esotropia. If the eyes point out, it’s called exotropia, and if they are misaligned vertically it’s called hypertropia. Bottom line, I was cross-eyed and for most of my life, it was a constant gut punch to my self-esteem and self-image. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Let’s talk about inspiration-specifically what to do when you can’t seem to find any. Generally, there seems to be two schools of thought around it. In one camp are those who more or less wait for inspiration to strike, which is sort of in line with the Greeks who believed that inspiration was basically an unconscious blast of creativity, either from the muses or directly from the Gods. To be fair, I actually know more than a few artists who insist that their particular muses drive much of their creative work. For example, my friend Gareth has his muse Melissa—and while the work he does with other models is terrific, there is just something, oh, I don’t know…special about the work he does with Melissa. Muses in one form or another have inspired art, music, film, and poetry for thousands of years, so who am I to question their validity. In the other camp are those more in line with Chuck Close who famously said “Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Now, I understand what Chuck is saying, and on some level I agree with him. The work isn’t going to make itself and at some point, you need to stop the navel gazing, roll up your sleeves and do something—whether or not you’re comfortable calling it work and really regardless of whether it’s even good. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Huck magazine posted a fascinating article—it’s the story of Adrian Street, an androgynous and incredibly flamboyant wrestler who inspired Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan. An interesting article on The New York Times that suggests that the music we loved as teenagers tends to be the music we still love as adults. Check out the Instagram feed of Jude Allen, a San Francisco based travel and landscape photographer who recently returned from Japan with a stunning body of work.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Lately, I’ve been thinking about our connection to objects and how, at least for some of us, certain objects can represent a specific time in our lives or evoke a particular state of mind or, in the case of artists, inform the type of work we are able to produce. Painters often have a favorite brush or two — I still use a couple that I’ve had since 1988. Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt used the same Leica M3 for decades and in 1963 Cormac McCarthy spent $50 on a Lettera 32 Olivetti manual typewriter that he used to write The Road, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, and seven other novels. Objects can become more than the raw materials used to create them. They are somehow imbued with hope, with possibility, and something greater than ourselves. On Monday, we were reminded just how much one object can mean to so many. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Kenneth Clark’s landmark documentary Civilisation is a thirteen part series produced in 1969 for the BBC that looks at the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. Here’s a fascinating interview with Martin Gran about what it means to be a holistic designer and the idea of looking beyond aesthetics into the deeper meaning of design and how collaboration often results in stronger work. Vice takes a look at seven photographers who are rewriting street photography’s rigid rules through clever shooting techniques, staged scenes, and a variety of digital manipulation.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

I’ve been frustrated with my own photography for quite a while, and I think that frustration played a big part in the whole “which camera should I buy?” saga. Look, I think I am a good photographer — sometimes maybe even really good — but lately I’ve been having a hard time connecting with the photographs I make. Many of them are interesting from a technical perspective, and I love the experience of seeing the world through a viewfinder and the challenge of finding an interesting composition. But, beyond that, there’s something missing and the work just doesn’t land for me. It doesn’t grab me and I think it has to do with my connection — or specifically the current lack of it — to the subject matter that I photograph. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Here’s an amazing behind the scenes look at the stunt driving in Mad Max Fury Road. It’s incredible to see just how much of that movie was done practically, rather than CGI. From the real to the unreal is the work of 3D artist Josef Bshara whose work is just fantastic. I did a little 3D back in the day in Lightwave and 3DSMax, but nothing as complex or realistic as this. And I meant to put this in the last episode but it slipped my mind. On Taking Pictures listener Josh Eikenberry has managed to cull six years of OTP show notes into one monster list. So if you want to see what we talked about over the course of 325 episodes, Josh has you covered.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

The other day, a friend of mine sent me a text message asking why I haven’t set up a Patreon for my podcasts. “Why would I do that?” I asked. “Asks the person who has wondered how he can get paid for the podcast he puts out,” he replied. There were a few more exchanges after this, but you get the idea. This was being asked by one of my closest friends and I know that it was absolutely from a space of love and out of the belief that what I do has value – monetary value – and he wants to see that value acknowledged in dollars. And to be fair, he has a valid point. I do too. But it’s not a simple as if/then – as in if you produce a podcast — or any creative work for that matter — then you’ll get paid for it. There are a lot of moving parts, so to really unpack it, we have to have an honest conversation about podcasting and money. Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS   LINKS Arnaud Sagnier is a terrific collage artist who publishes under the name @Grafikstreet. His work is a mashup of vintage and modern aesthetics and the way he combines source material is just fantastic. Tom Crouch is a British singer songwriter who I found through a collaboration he did with the band Joseph, who Adrianne and I saw with Dawes and Shovels and Rope a couple months ago. You can find Tom @liminalofficial Tim Okamura is an incredible painter who blows me away with every new piece. His technique is tight but loose. His subject matter is powerful and he just seems like a super cool guy.   Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0