#dooped

I am so upset. It feels like every time I make a little progress something always happens to pull me 2 steps back. I just got my oil changed and tires rotated two weeks ago at the same place I always take my car. Last week one of my tires was making a funny noise but i didn’t think anything of it at first. A few days go by and the tire is still making the noise so I decide to check it to make sure it doesn’t have a nail. I see no nail. Saturday rolls around and Jorge and I use my car to go grab a bite to eat. He hears the noise too and tells me I should have it checked so that night when i leave his house I check the tire again and I see a giant crack going down it on the side so Sunday morning I ask my grandpa to look at it with me and he tells me I need a new tire because he does not like the way that looks. He told me it would be okay until next weekend but not to go over 55 mph with it. Even though he said it’ll be okay until next week I don’t like the way it sounds so I went ahead and got it replaced this morning so I won’t have to keep driving with it cuz that noise makes me worried and it’s very loud. So I go to Tires Service Plus in Royal Palm and I just wanted a used tire for now and I’ll replace it later when I’ve got more saved up, but the guy tells me they don’t have used tires there and the cheapest tire they have is $80 so I tell him that’s fine go ahead and do that. He tells me with the alignment and everything it’ll be $113 and that’s a little steep because in Belle Glade the total price is $80 for a tire, no extra charges. When they finally pull my car to the back to start working on it the guy tells me two of my lugnuts are stripped and I don’t know what that means so he offers to show it to me and yeah there’s no denying that those two bolts were damaged and he told me it’ll be another $100 to replace those two so I asked if that could hold off until next time because I really didn’t go there to spend all that money but he said they had to be replaced today cuz it’s a safety issue. Without those lugnuts screwed on tightly it won’t hold my tire in place as well as it should and he probably won’t be able to get my tire back on the way those bolts are damaged. So that’s another $100 down the drain and that’s how ONE TIRE cost me TWO HUNDRED TWENTY DOLLARS. I am very upset by it and every time I think about it it makes me want to cry. I’m trying to save money and every time I make a little progress something always comes up to take it away from me. I also feel betrayed because the tire shop in Belle Glade is the only place I take my car to so the fact that my lugnuts are damaged in the first place most likely means the tire shop in Belle Glade is the one who damaged it. I was just there 2 weeks ago for my oil change and tire rotation too so did they not see there was a giant crack in one of my tires when they were rotating them? And did they not notice that those two lugnuts were damaged? Did they see the giant crack in my tire but decided it wasn’t an issue at the time so that’s y they didn’t address it? Were my lugnuts damaged 2 weeks ago but they didn’t feel like fixing it so they just jammed the tire back on and risked my safety for it? I don’t think I want to go back there anymore. They do have cheaper tires than the place in Royal Palm so if I ever need another tire I’ll probably just buy it from there and have someone else place it for me so they won’t damage my lugnuts again.   

In the early spring of 2016, amidst the media blitz of the 2016 Presidential Election, I noticed something very strange happening online. All across the United States, Facebook users, some real some fake, were creating event invitations for obscure and hard to believe public concerts in unlikely places. The first to catch my attention was “Fred Durst LIVE at Rose's Department Store”. Thousands had RSVP’d and many commented, shared, and argued about the veracity of the event. I knew I needed to show up. The day of the event I made portraits of the those who showed up. The fake event sparked a several months journey for me as I attended dozens more of these events across the country that summer. The project as I could sense was touching on one of the real world examples of how the uncharted territory of social media could falsely shift peoples opinions, beliefs and even actions.

The day before the 2016 Presidential election I was interviewed on the BBC’s technology program Click and months later the project was introduced as a major solo exhibition in Merignac France for the Merignac Photographic Festival in 2017.