United States
• 1985
Biography
Mike Brodie, born in 1985 in Mesa, Arizona, is a self-taught American photographer best known for his raw and intimate portraits of young drifters illegally riding freight trains across the United States. Nicknamed “The Polaroid Kidd,” he began documenting this nomadic subculture in 2004 at the age of 17, using a Polaroid SX-70 and later a Nikon F3 during a journey of over 80,000 km across 46 states.
His acclaimed photo series A Period of Juvenile Prosperity (2013), shot between 2006 and 2009, captures a generation in search of freedom with striking authenticity. Exhibited in galleries such as Yossi Milo (New York), M+B (Los Angeles), and Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris), this body of work established Brodie as a unique voice in contemporary documentary photography.
Despite winning the 2008 Baum Award for American Emerging Artists, Brodie stepped away from the art world to become a diesel mechanic, graduating from Nashville Auto Diesel College and working with Union Pacific Railroad. He has since published Tones of Dirt and Bone (2014) and Polaroid Kid (2023), continuing to influence photography with work often compared to Steve McCurry and Mary Ellen Mark.
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