Born in 1985, Mike Brodie began photographing when he was given a Polaroid camera in 2004. Working under the moniker 'The Polaroid Kidd,' Brodie spent the next four years circumambulating the United States, amassing an archive of photographs that make up one of the few, true collections of American travel photography. Brodie made work in the tradition of photographers like Robert Frank, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, but due to never having undergone any formal training he always remained untethered to the pressures and expectations of art market.

Brodie compulsively documented his exploration of the tumultuous world of transient subcultures without regard to how the photographs would exist beyond him. After feeling as though he documented all that he could of his subject, his insatiable wanderlust found a new passion, and as quickly as he began making photographs, he has left the medium to continue in his constant pursuit of new adventures.

In 2008, Brodie received the Baum Award for American Emerging Artists and has a forthcoming book to be published by Steidl, as well as numerous international shows. Brodie recently graduated from the Nashville Auto Diesel College (NADC) and is now working as a diesel mechanic. Although Brodie has stopped making photographs, the body of work he made in only four short years has left a huge impact on the photo world, and is now being made available to the public.

Publications

2012 - A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Twin Palms Publishers
2006 - Tones of dirt and bone, TBW Books, 2006

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014 - A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Paris, Fr
2013 - A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 - A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 - A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2007 - Ridin' Dirty Face, Needles and Pens, San Francisco, CA
2007 - Mike Brodie Photographs, Casa del Lago, Chapultepec, Mexico
2007 - Tones of Dirt and Bone, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
2007 - Homesteadaz, Get This! Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2006 - Tones of Dirt and Bone, M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 - Homesteadaz, Get This! Gallery, Atlanta, GA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015 - Sitter, Canzani Center Gallery, Columbus College of the Art & Design, Columbus, OH
2014 - Collector's Favorites, Leica Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2014 - Only the Good Ones: The Snapshot Aesthetic Revisited, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
2014 - SPACE, Sundance, Park City, UT
2013 - Perchance to Dream, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
2011 - idyll, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California
2011 - Minor Cropping May Occur: (selected diaries 1962-2011), Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, NY
2010 - Personal Identities/ Contemporary Portraits, Sonoma State University, Sonoma, CA
2010 - BROKEN LINES (curated by Nadia Ismail), Anna Klinkhammer Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany
2008 - Presumed Innocence, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
2007 - Swoon, Chris Stain, Mike Brodie, Gallery LJ Beaubourg, Paris, FR

Awards

2008 - The Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers

Collections

The Sir Elton John Photography Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
Berkeley Museum of Art, California

Books from Mike BRODIE