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 was falsely shifting peoples opinions, beliefs and even actions. More of the series NoShow can be viewed here.
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.
Most recently, one of the images from NoShow was selected for a group exhibition here in my home state. I am excited that the photograph “Hoods Up, 2016” will be on display in large format for the 5th Edition of EYES on MAIN Street in Wilson, NC. The festival officially opens April 27th, 2019 and I’m so excited to be showing at this exhibition once again.
Hoods Up, 2016 / Morganton, NC