At The Bro-Down

dress: Maison Scotch
espadrilles: from France
cedar jewelry: Thank You Kindly

Brodie narrates.

Train conductor Angel Poventude and Brodie swap rail stories.

One shudders to think of the risks taken by this sweet and gentle spirit in conditions quite at odds with his nature, yet photographer Mike Brodie, aka "The Polaroid Kidd", spent four years documenting life hopping freight trains. Sensitive portraits of Brodie's fellow travelers juxtapose their humanity to unforgiving steel, at turns both their refuge and peril. "Riding suicide" in one image, three pairs of feet shod in artfully chosen Nikes dangle inches above the cross ties, rails and wheels. Torn clothing is kept and mended, bearing its own stylistic witness to the journey. Vagabonding informs his landscapes, whose vanishing points beckon viewers with adventures yet to come.
Atlantan Lloyd Benjamin of Get This! Gallery was among the first to recognize Brodie's achievements with a 2006 solo exhibition called "Homesteadaz". The Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers followed in 2007 along with notice from American Photo and The New Yorker. A Period of Juvenile Prosperity is the title of his forthcoming book from Twin Palms Publishers. Thank you BurnAway and Get This! Gallery for the preview.