Mike Brodie

Michael Christopher Brodie (born 1985), also known as the "Polaroid Kid" or "Polaroid Kidd", is an American photographer. From 2004 to 2008, Brodie freighthopped across the US and photographed people he encountered, largely train-hoppers, vagabonds, squatters, and hobos. He has published A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Tones of Dirt and Bone (2015), Polaroid Kid (2023), and Failing (2024).

Life and work Michael Christopher Brodie was born in 1985 In 2000, the Brodie family moved to Pensacola, Florida where Brodie met his first girlfriend who introduced him to the punk rock music scene and the lifestyle therein.

In 2003, while washing dishes at his home, Brodie witnessed a young couple huddled close together on a passing railroad freight car, intrigued by this, Brodie (then aged 18) left home, eventually freighthopping across the US from 2004 to 2008. He photographed his experiences including the people he encountered, largely train-hoppers, vagabonds, squatters and hobos. Initially he used a Polaroid SX-70 given to him by a friend. When Polaroid discontinued SX-70 film around 2005/2006 he swapped to a Nikon F3 and 35 mm film.

A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was included in lists of best photobooks of 2013 by critic Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian, Clinton Cargill in The New York Times, photographer Alec Soth in The Telegraph, Dazed, Mother Jones and American Photo magazine. Kenneth Baker, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, listed the A Period of Juvenile Prosperity exhibition at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in his top 10 list for 2013. Vince Aletti in Artforum named Brodie's show in New York as the show of the year, and has said of Brodie's work: "Even if you're not intrigued by Brodie's ragtag bohemian cohort—a band of outsiders with an unerring sense of post-punk style—the intimate size and warm, slightly faded color of his prints are seductive. His portraits . . . have a tender incisiveness that is rare at any age."

In 2009, Brodie attended and graduated from the Nashville Auto-Diesel College, in Nashville, TN, with goals of attaining a career in that field. Brodie was working as a diesel mechanic for the Union Pacific Railroad, along with his wife, who works as a conductor.

Publications Tones of Dirt and Bone. Subscription Series #1. Oakland, CA: TBW, 2006. Edition of 500 copies. Brodie, Paul Schiek, Ari Marcopolous and Jim Goldberg each had one book in a set of four. Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms, 2015. . Edition of 3000 copies. A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms, 2013. . Available in a first edition, a second edition of 3000 copies, and a third edition. Polaroid Kid. Stanley Barker, 2023. Boxed set of 50 reproduction Polaroids. Failing. Twin Palms, 2024. . The Slack Trilogy. Lato Paper, 2025.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions Tones of Dirt and Bone, M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2006 Paris International Photo Fair, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, 2006 Homesteadaz, Get This! Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2007 Ridin' Dirty Face, Needles and Pens, San Francisco, CA, 2007 Tones of Dirt and Bone, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, 2007 Get This! Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2013 Public Land gallery, Sacramento, CA, May–June 2019. New photographs.