The Terrible Creative

This is The Terrible Creative.

A show about what it actually costs to make things for a living. The tension between the privilege of doing work you love and the frustration of an industry that keeps moving the floor. The patterns, the irritants, and the internal questions creatives aren't supposed to ask in public.

Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer based in San Diego.

If your identity is tangled up in what you create, you're in the right place.

New episodes every Tuesday. Follow the show so you don't miss it.
Read the book: https://www.terriblephotographer.com/the-book
Support the show: https://www.terriblephotographer.com/support
Subscribe to Pub Notes (the newsletter): https://the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terriblephotographer/
Patrick on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickfore/
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

What is The Terrible Creative?

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.

There’s a version of a creative career nobody puts in the brochure.
If you’re anything like me, you started somewhere—graphic design, maybe. You learned art direction. You picked up a camera, because you enjoyed it, and then the work required it. You maybe spent a decade chasing the high-speed evolution of this industry, doing whatever it takes to stay relevant. To stay employed.
And sometimes you’re incredibly grateful you get to do this. And sometimes, you’re just exhausted.

My name is Patrick Fore. I’m a commercial photographer based in San Diego. I’ve built campaigns for brands you’d recognize. But I’ve also sat in my car after a 'successful' shoot feeling absolutely nothing—and then felt the guilt of not being more grateful for it.
That tension—between the privilege of doing the work we love and the frustration of an industry that seems to be evaporating.—is where this show lives.

This isn't a lecture, they are more like essays. I’m not here to give you the answers—there are plenty of other podcasts for that. What I’m doing here is more like a post-mortem. I use my own experiences and the lives of other creatives as a way to look at the patterns, the irritants, and the internal questions we aren’t supposed to ask in public.
If your identity is tangled up in what you create—and you're tired of being told to just 'stay positive' about the grind—then you’re in the right place.

Welcome to The Terrible Creative.
Stay curious. Stay courageous. Stay terrible."