Juxtapoz Magazine - M+B Looks at the Photography of Mike Brodie

Mike Brodie began photographing with a Polaroid camera in 2004 at age 19, documenting unique people and gritty situations while hopping freight trains. He emerged as an autodidact with raw talent and gained art-world attention. Brodie worked as a diesel mechanic on trains and later tugboats while continuing to refine his photographic eye. His 35mm photographs of friends traveling America by freight train and hitchhiking resemble stills from a film that did not exist and led to the Baum Award for American Emerging Artists. He collaborates on the documentary/film essay Slack and is exploring moving pictures. His Polaroids retain early naïveté and function as singular photographic paintings that cannot be replicated.

While Mike first began photography with a Polaroid camera in 2004, at the age of 19, capturing unique people and gritty, raw situations during his life hopping freight trains-it quickly became clear that he was far more than a fly-by-night kid with a passing interest in snapping pictures. Mike caught the attention of the art world as an autodidact savant of authentic photography, possessing true, raw talent and his career took off.

As Mike grew up and pursued a parallel career as a diesel mechanic-working on train and later tugboat engines-his photography continued. His eye for framing subjects matured, as did his subject matter. Friends traveling America by freight train and hitchhiking were now captured in 35mm photographs that looked like stills from a film that didn't exist. This body of 35mm work led to Mike being awarded the Baum Award for American Emerging Artists.

He is also the subject and collaborator of the forthcoming documentary/film essay Slack and has begun exploring moving pictures. Like any great artist, Mike has distinct creative periods-but his Polaroids are what started it all. Not only do they possess the wild naïveté of his earliest creative phase, they function as unique art objects that feel more like photographic paintings of his subjects-works that stand alone and can never be fully replicated.

Read at Juxtapoz