Voting Means “I Matter” : Mobile Vote Center Portraits from Los Angeles’ Skid Row
The sense of dignity that comes with voting crosses every socioeconomic boundary.
On October 30th, 2020, I photographed Californians at a pop-up mobile Vote Center that specifically targeted disenfranchised U.S. citizens on LA’s Skid Row, a major hub of homeless encampment in America. In my conversations with these men and women, it was clear they possess a strong will to exercise their most basic political rights.
An inescapable dichotomy that this exceptionally divisive U.S. Presidential election lays bare is the gain of “the 1%” amid financial pain for a massive swath of Americans.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, billionaires have seen their net worth increase by half a trillion dollars, while the nation has seen a significant rise in homelessness this year. One of the starkest political contrasts that continues to trouble America is: a conservative ideology that advances class divisions (deliberately or not) versus a progressive will that lifts the least advantaged and promotes basic fairness.
Right now, Americans are facing our worst demons—the ills of unbalanced capitalism and haunting racism. Those who want chaos in America will continue to exploit these weaknesses until her partisan leaders and their entrenched supporters can find their better angels and forge a path to lasting unity.
@samcomen
https://www.samcomen.com/election-2020-i-matter
