Mike Brodie’s ‘A Period of Juvenile Prosperity’

Mike Brodie, a young, 21 year old photographer at the time, decided to pack up and leave everything behind to document the lives of American vagabonds in an amazing, thought-provoking and touching series of photographs taken between 2006 and 2009. These compelling images by Mike Brodie have now been published in his book A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. A Period of Juvenile Prosperity leads us into the precarious daily life of these young people, jumping from train to train, sleeping and living rough all while traveling throughout the United States. Born in Arizona in 1985, Mike Brodie first began photographing in 2004 when he was given a Polaroid camera. Working under the moniker, ‘The Polaroid Kidd’, Mike Brodie spent the next four years circumambulating the U.S. amassing an archive of photographs that would go on to make up one of the few, true collections of American travel photography. Having never undergone any formal training, he chose to remained untethered to the pressures and expectations of the art market. Mike Brodie compulsively documented his explorations and as suddenly as he began making photographs, he left the medium behind. In 2008, Mike Brodie received the Baum Award for American Emerging Artists. A Period of Juvenile Prosperity published by Twin Palms was released in early 2013 and has been followed by numerous gallery shows. Mike Brodie recently graduated from the Nashville Auto Diesel College (NADC) and is now working as a mobile diesel mechanic in his silver ’93 Dodge Ram. Although he has stopped creating photographs, the body of work he developed in four short intense years has left an enduring impact on the photo world.