Oscar-nominated filmmaker Pen Densham has spent a lifetime telling stories across writing, cinematography, and photography. In this conversation, he shares how letting go of self-criticism and industry expectations unlocked a new creative freedom—and why the work born from passion always resonates deeper than anything designed for the market.
There's a particular kind of magic that happens when a storyteller stops trying to please the market and starts listening to their soul. Pen Densham knows this better than most—he's lived it across three different mediums, each time learning to let go a little more.
Densham's creative journey spans decades and disciplines: from screenwriting to cinematography to, now, impressionist photography. When I sat down with him for Audio Signals Podcast, we didn't dwell on credits or awards. We talked about the vulnerability of creativity, the courage it takes to break the rules, and the freedom that comes when you stop asking for permission.
"Those scripts that I wrote out of passion, even though they didn't seem necessary to fit the market, got made more frequently than the ones I wrote when I was architecting to hit goals for a studio," Densham told me. It's a paradox he's discovered over and over: the work born from genuine emotional need resonates in ways that calculated formulas never can.
His thinking has been shaped by extraordinary influences. He studied with Marshall McLuhan, who opened his eyes to the biology of storytelling—how audiences enter a trance state, mirroring the characters on screen, processing strategies through their neurons. He found resonance in Joseph Campbell's work on myth. "We're the shamans of our age," Densham reflects. "We're trying to interpret society in ways that people can learn and change."
But what struck me most was how Densham, after mastering the craft of writing and the machinery of cinematography, has circled back to the simplest tool: a camera. Not to capture perfect images, but to create what he calls "visual music." He moves his camera deliberately during long exposures. He shoots koi through blinding sunlight. He photographs waves at dusk until they fragment into impressionistic dances of light and motion.
"The biggest effort was letting go of self-criticism," he admitted. "Thinking 'this is stupid, these aren't real photographs.' But I'm making images that blow my mind."
This is the thread that runs through Densham's entire creative life: the willingness to unlearn. In writing, he learned to trust his instincts over studio formulas. In cinematography, he learned that visual storytelling could carry emotional weight beyond dialogue. And now, in photography, he's learned that breaking every rule he ever absorbed—holding the camera still, getting the exposure right, capturing a "correct" image—has unlocked something entirely new.
There's a lesson here for anyone who creates. We absorb rules unconsciously—what a proper screenplay looks like, how a film should be shot, what makes a "real" photograph. And sometimes those rules serve us. But sometimes they become cages. Densham's journey is proof that the most profound creative freedom comes not from mastering the rules, but from having the courage to abandon them.
"I'm not smarter than anybody else," he said. "But like Einstein said, I stay at things longer."
We left the door open for more—AI, the creator economy, the future of storytelling. But for now, there's something powerful in Densham's path across writing, cinematography, and photography: a reminder that creativity is not a destination but a continuous act of letting go.
Stay tuned. Subscribe. And remember—we are all made of stories.
Learn more about Pen Densham: https://pendenshamphotography.com
Learn more about my work and podcasts at marcociappelli.com and audiosignalspodcast.com
Episode Summary
In this episode of Audio Signals Podcast, Marco Ciappelli welcomes Oscar-nominated filmmaker and visual artist Pen Densham for a conversation about creative evolution across writing, cinematography, and photography. Densham shares how passion-driven work consistently outperformed projects designed for the market, the influence of Marshall McLuhan and Joseph Campbell on his understanding of storytelling, and how letting go of self-criticism unlocked an entirely new artistic chapter in impressionist photography. A meditation on the courage to break rules and the freedom that follows.
5 QUOTES FROM PEN DENSHAM:
1. "Those scripts that I wrote out of passion, even though they didn't seem necessary to fit the market, got made more frequently than the ones I wrote when I was architecting to hit goals for a studio."
2. "We're the shamans of our age. We're trying to interpret society in ways that people can learn and change based on the characters themselves making their own choices."
3. "The biggest effort was letting go of self-criticism. Thinking 'this is stupid, these aren't real photographs.' But I'm making images that blow my mind."
4. "I always like to surround myself by a community of people that I call story midwives—not telling you what sex the child has to be, but just trying to help you push through the pain of birth."
5. "I'm not smarter than anybody else, but like Einstein said, I stay at things longer."
3 QUOTES FROM MARCO CIAPPELLI:
1. "When you tell a story, there is the story that you tell, but there's also how people listen and interpret your story."
2. "In order to break the rules, you need to know the rules. You knew the photography, you knew the cinematography, and you decided to let it go because it gives you even more freedom."
3. "You capture it in one shot—that's the hard part of being a photographer, and at the same time the easy part, because you don't need lighting, you don't need cameras and set people. You can just get inspired in a moment and make it happen."