Contemporary Photographer

Mike Brodie doesn’t like to think of himself as a photographer, or even as an artist for that matter. However, with the power and beauty Brodie captured in his brief photographic stint, the world will be hard-pressed to remember as anything else.

Born in Arizona in 1985, Brodie first started his photographic expedition in 2004 with little more than a Polaroid camera and a single pack of film.

Before hopping onto his first train, Brodie was living a pretty tame life in Pensacola, Florida going to high school and working a part-time job bagging groceries. It wasn’t until he met a train-hopper at a party that he found the subject that would come to define his photographic career.

A couple weeks after his encounter at the party, Brodie made the quick decision to just get on a train and go.

Brodie hopped trains for a 5 year period from 2004-2009. His early works (2004-06) were taken with on a Polaroid Spectra with a discontinued line of film. These images would later comprise his first exhibition, Tones of Dirt and Bone. Around this time, Brodie began uploading his photos under the name of “the Polaroid Kidd” and started to gain some national attention.

“I think I was seeing a lot of really unique and creative people and I wanted to capture them on film. I felt like, man, this is not going to last. I’m not going to live like this forever and[n] either are those people. I feel like I should photograph this. Like, this is like my job, I gotta do this.” (from his interview with KQED)

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From 2006 to 2009, Brodie set out again, this time with a 35mm, Nikon F3 camera (he could no longer find any film for his Polaroid). The book that resulted from these later adventures, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, would go on to be one of the most highly acclaimed photography books of 2013.

Mike Brodie’s photographs are totally visceral. His images show a soulful energy and freedom in a world and from people that most of us never would have known to exist. The subjects of his photos are dirty and raw, and his technique matches that perfectly.

Mike Brodie may no longer be taking photographs, but at least the ones he left us with are downright awe-inspiring.