At 17 Mike Brodie hopped his first train close to his home in Pensacola, FL thinking he would visit a friend in Mobile, AL. Instead the train went in the opposite direction to Jacksonville, FL. Days later, Brodie rode the same train home, arriving back where he started. Brodie began to wander across the U.S. by any means that were free – walking, hitchhiking and train hopping. Along the way, Brodie found a Polaroid camera stuffed behind a car seat. As a way of staying in touch with his transient community, Brodie shared his pictures on various websites, gaining the moniker The Polaroid Kidd. When the Polaroid film he used was discontinued, Brodie switched to 35mm film. Brodie spent years crisscrossing the U.S. amassing an impressive archive of American travel photography. Brodie is currently working as a mobile diesel mechanic and no longer takes pictures.

An exhibition of this work opened at Yossi Milo on March 7 and will be on view through Saturday, April 6. A book signing of his new monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, published by Twin Palms, will be held on this Sunday, March 17 at Family Bookstore in LA from 5 – 7 pm. He also has an exhibition of the work at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles from March 16 through May 11.

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