Mike Brodie
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Mike Brodie (born in 1985) is a self-trained American photographer from Pensacola, Florida. He is also known by the moniker The Polaroid Kidd.
In 2003 Brodie left home at 18 to travel the rails across America. A friend gave him a camera and he found himself spending three years photographing the friends and companions he encountered with the Polaroid SX-70.[1] Polaroid discontinued SX-70 film, so now he shoots on 35mm on a Nikon F3.
His photographs have been featured in exhibits in Milwaukee, Austin, Atlanta and Los Angeles. His work was also selected to appear in the 2006 edition of the Paris International Photo Fair at the Louvre.[2] In November 2007 he collaborated with Swoon and Chris Stain to mount an installation at Gallery LJ Beaubourg in Paris.[3]. He also has had collaborative shows with artist Monica Canilao.
His photographs largely depict what he refers to as "travel culture", train-hoppers, vagabonds, squatters and hobos. Brodie says his subjects are friends and acquaintances, "I know most everyone I shoot. I can't really shoot a good photo of somebody unless I know them, but you can get to know somebody just by talkin for a few minutes ya know?"[4]
Critic Vince Aletti of artsandantiques.net says 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." [5]
