MIKE BRODIE A PERIOD OF JUVENILE PROSPERITY
2013-04-15For three intense and prolific years, Brodie crisscrossed the states hopping trains, hitchhiking and employing whatever freely available means to fuel his burning lust for movement. The resulting photographs weave a telling photo narrative relatable to Kerouac’s On The Road, capturing the raw spirit of adventure and unbridled freedom Brodie and his friends sought and lived.
A natural, Brodie’s camera functioned as an extension of himself, an obsession. There was no thought-out intention to document or record, the resulting images just happened after Brodie found a Polaroid SX-70 on the backseat of a friend’s car. Soulfully and intimately depicted against a constant backdrop of movement are savages “riding suicide,” maps in filthy hands, tender moments of slumber and ruddy faces framed by wind-whipped hair eagerly leaning into the next adventure.
Brodie’s tightly knit traveling community was bound by movement, ravenous for life’s varied experiences and interactions and fueled by an intense curiosity to see, to feel, to meet something and someone beyond the towns in which they had been raised. Living outside of society’s norms, this highly creative group lived neither on nor off, but parallel to the beaten path, gleaning society’s detritus along the way to support their chosen version of the American Dream.
Exhibition runs through till May 11th, 2013
M+B
612 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles
California
90069
