The Long Middle - Part 3 - The Enemy - How Gatekeeping and Hierarchy Keep Creative Professionals Isolated (And Why We're All Complicit)

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Why does a $600 light get dismissed while a $3,000 light gets respect, even when they produce identical results? Why do wedding photographers apologize by saying “I’m just a wedding photographer”? And why do we hide the work we’re actually doing because it’s not the “right” kind of work?

In Part 3 of The Long Middle series, Patrick examines the hierarchies that divide creative professionals, and admits his own complicity in enforcing them.

From a tense Zoom call about Profoto versus Godox, to being dismissed in Clubhouse rooms, to looking down on other photographers while feeling looked down upon himself, this episode pulls no punches about how gatekeeping actually works, who it serves, and why we keep it alive.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Profoto story: when "professional standards" are actually access standards
• What gatekeeping actually means (and the Kurt Lewin research that defined it)
• Why the kitchen brigade system is the perfect metaphor for creative hierarchies
• A scene from Pixar's Ratatouille and how it quietly becomes the emotional center of the episode
• How wedding, portrait, and fashion photographers face different versions of the same dismissal
• The pattern across all creative fields: writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers
• Patrick's confession: the times he's been the gatekeeper
• Why the hierarchy survives (it's not the people at the top—it's the people in the middle)
• The Clubhouse dismissals and the Taylor Guitars "cool kids table"
• How hiding your "wrong" work keeps you complicit in the system
• What leadership actually looks like: extending an arm instead of pulling it up behind you

THE CHALLENGE: The next time someone asks "What are you working on?"—tell them the truth. Not the impressive version. Not the potential job. The actual work you're doing right now. Say it like it's legitimate work. Because it is.

KEY QUOTE: "The hierarchy doesn't survive because the people at the top enforce it. It survives because the people in the middle enforce it. Because we're so afraid of being dismissed, we dismiss someone else first."

LINKS:

Website: terriblephotographer.com

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CREDITS

• Music: Licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions

• Written and Produced by: Patrick Fore

• Episode Image: Licensed through Adobe Stock