A detailed, verifiable and true exposay and character assessment

Many of you locals may know of eyeKandey Digital Media (Michael R. Erwine) in Reno, NV, but you may not know the following about him...and while we are at it, you'll get to know me a little better too. Feel free to ask Michael if any of this is untrue. This is a true story of disrespect, betrayal, narcissism and even attempted blackmail. Please, read on.

Michael, I would not have bothered to say anything, let alone take the time to write this exposay, but you have forced me to in response to your recent actions of trying to bring my family into you're problem with me. You don't mess with a man's family!

I have known Michael since 2017. We met when he was hosting photography events at RAPCO Studio. We made an arrangement that I would build him a website and host it on my webserver in exchange for studio time.

For those of you who may not know, here is a little of what building a website entails. Michael had very specific and very technical needs. I had to search out solutions for a non-technical user, Michael, to be able to create picture galleries, play video and have tiered access so that the general public could not view certain picture and video content. Additionally, things had to appear in a very specific way to present his brand in a certain way. This took me many dozens of hours to complete. Additionally, I trained him as much and as fast as he was capable of learning so he could support his website as much as possible on his own.

I finished up Michael's website he was basically happy with it. At that time, his brand was Media Erotica NV. Not long after, COVID hit and he closed RAPCO Studio. I continued to provide hosting and support for his website without asking for anything in return for two+ years since then.

Fast forward to late 2022. The webserver was showing its age and it was time to move to a new one. The migration did not go so well at first and Michael threw a fit sending me nasty messages several times a day for a couple of weeks all the while I was doing everything humanly possible (countless more hours of free technical support) to recover the many hours Michael had invested to get his website up to that point. I probably spent more time than it would have taken to recreate what he had done.

This was the first of several childish temper tantrums this 67 (at the time of this writing) year old man would direct at me. Adults throwing a tantrum is a narcissistic behavior to manipulate someone into surrendering to their narcissists demands.

Regardless of his thankless attitude I was eventually successful and his website was recovered with no data loss. He did say (a small) thanks after everything was working again as he liked but never did apologize for his juvenile behaviour.

If you've read this far, thank you.

I'll spare you the details of the second tantrum which was smaller in magnitude. If you really want to hear about it, just ask me but it also wasn't pretty.

The third tantrum occurred when I called in a favor that would cost him nothing in return for building and years of hosting his website. The arrangement Michael and I came up with was that he would split hotel room 50/50, put the hotel room on his credit card and I would (and did) pay him cash for my half. This happened exactly one time.

He threw a fit because I had four models attend and we had a fantastic shoot. Meanwhile, he only had two models show up and two more cancelled. Since I had four models and he had two, he wanted to change the deal to where I would pay for 2/3 of the room rather than the agreed upon 50/50.

We were planning to do another hotel shoot based on the overwhelming response and he changed the deal. He wanted me to put it on my credit card and he would pay me back which he knew I couldn't and wouldn't use my card. When I said "No" he started to get insistent. I stuck with "No" though because that was his half of the deal. Whenever I would ask him what he brings to our partnership, he would simply not answer because the true answer would be, "Nothing." Now remember the investment of time I made in his website up to now with nothing in return. I told him the support would stop but I would continue to provide hosting and his website would continue to work. I also told him that I felt all of the things I have done for him and his website were way undervalued. He got very mad and said something that sounded like blackmail as he threatened to tell my family of my photograping beautiful ladies, "My silence is under-rated if you ask me". He hoped they would disapprove and by exposing me would somehow cause problems in my personal life. He didn't count on the fact that they already know and are not concerned in the way that he had hoped.

He then said, and I quote, "...it will simply start a WAR between us..." I have all the Facebook messages if anyone cares to read. Childish tantrum number three.

I was *ending* our association of four+ years and he is *starting* war. I really don't understand why anyone would want to go out of their way to start trouble and draw others in that have nothing to do with it when it would have been so much easier and beneficial to simply move on. There is simply no understanding why narcissists do what they do or just how far they will go. Even in the best case, all this drama is less than favorable for all parties involved. The worst case is mutual destruction. Why would anyone want either? This is a very strong character statement about Michael!

A couple days went by of him accusing me of "hanging him out to dry" and various other unpleasant interpretations of the situation and I finally managed to talk him down. I told him that hostilities between us (read him being hostile to me) does not serve anyone well. He agreed surprisingly easy.

We started talking about another photo event at an AirBnB or hotel. Again, he offered up a changed deal where I would pay more than half before the event. I counteroffered with me paying any overage after the event. He refused. After a bit more dialog, I said, "No. Done. Bye." essentially ending our association of four+ years and yet more support for him and his website.

He started slandering and berating me (a narcissistic behavioral trait) to people we both know so I gave him 30 days to move his website off of my server.

Here is where Michael really shows his true colors and just how far he is willing to go. This is what you all need to know about the character of who you are dealing with.

Rather than coming to me with his problem with me, he attempted to contact a family member to carry out his threat of blackmail.  My family member sent me this: What kind of man would even attempt drag someone's family into his drama rather than facing me man to man? Micheal would even go so far as causing problems with my family whom he has zero regard for whatsoever. He will never stop as long as he is alive and I am out here doing my thing. Who else will he try to drag into his drama scheme and use them to get at me. Perhaps he will use you? Don't doubt it even for a minute. You readers form your own opinion on that and beware.

My character assessment (opinion) of Michael is that he is narcissistic, gaslighter, hate filled, vengeful, manipulative, spiteful, paranoid, self serving and has to think he has to be in control of everyone and everything. He will stop at nothing and will harm anyone who gets in his way, forever. You could become the target of his vengeance for as little as ceasing to do a favor any longer. For whatever reason, he wants hate, rivalry and drama amongst photographers and wants to involve models and even the families of others. You have read enough here but if you really want more, I'll add specific examples of each of these behaviors that I have observed first hand. And I have it in his own words in my Facebook Messenger chats.

Be warned than Michael is a "retired sales, marketing, and advertising career professional" and is very good at his craft (manipulation). Marketing benefits from someone who has mastered dark psychology - the better at dark psychology, the more effective marketing becomes. If you look as his website, it can be hard to tell that it's really only one man. He makes it sound like so much more. Marketers are very skilled at manipulating and making you believe that they have something you *need*, it's in *limited supply* and that you can *only* get it from them. He will not do anything for anyone unless he stands to gain far more than anyone else or it harms his perceived rivals or enemies. If you look closely, he promotes models (most of which will no longer shoot with him) only as much as he has to in order to promote his own brand above all else. His whole shtick is to promote himself, not models, so he can deploy his same manipulative scheme on the next models. He does not promote models in a way that will help them grow or get shoots with other photographers, only with him. He is a very crafty spin doctor and can make anything sound too good or too bad to be true. Pay attention when/if you ever deal with him, especially you young ladies that may not have encountered these types of narcissistic, manipulative character flaws mentioned above, and see if you notice any signs of manipulative behavior. Associate with him if you want - just go into it with your eyes open.

Other social media accounts of Michael's to watch out for are Instagram (@eyeKandey.digital.media, @eyeKandeymag and @michaelrerwine), Twitter (MediaErotica_NV), Facebook (mediaeroticanv, michael.r.erwine and JMichaelRPhotography), Magcloud (eyeKandeymag), Kavyar (eyekandey-digital-media).

To recap, I owe Michael nothing. I have never been obligated to provide any web related services to him other than a gentleman's agreement that was broken upon closure of RAPCO Studio. I am not sworn to secrecy or silence. I am merely removing myself from a situation where I was being taken advantage of. No more free web hosting, no more free tech support, no more free web development, and no more free training. I am not obligated to provide any of this. I gave him a reasonable time of 30 days to find another host and for that, he is attempting to drag my family and others that have nothing to do with this into his problem with me rather than handling it like a responsible individual.

Michael, is any of this untrue or inaccurate?

You owe it to yourself to learn spot a narcissist and know what gaslighting is. This link and this link point to a decent video on how to shut down a narcissist that starts off with a description that nails Michaels behavior. Please take a few minutes to watch it and see if this description matches what you observe in your situation and what you've read here.

I will update this article with any new brands that Michael creates.

I have much more to say about his character but it does not directly relate to this experience. Many models in the area do as well. Ask me for more info and for references to other models so they can share their experiences with Michael to spare you from the same.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Update February 12, 2023

The only correction he offered was his age. It has been corrected to 67 from 70+.

I was informed that this will be passed on to his legal counsel. How can he afford that but can't afford to pay models?