Mike Brody

• A Period of Juvenile Prosperity

• Michael Christopher Brodie was born on April 5, 1985, in Mesa, Arizona, the son of Frankie and Gary Brodie.In 2000, the Brodie family moved to Pensacola, Florida where Brodie met his first girlfriend who introduced him to the punk rock music scene and the lifestyle therein. In 2003 Brodie (then age 18) left home, eventually freighthopping across the US from 2004 to 2008. He photographed his experiences. Initially he used a Polaroid SX-70 given to him by a friend. When Polaroid discontinued SX-70 film around 2005/2006 he swapped to a Nikon F3 and 35 mm film. Brodie published two bodies of work from this (latter) period: "Tones of Dirt and Bone" and "A Period of Juvenile Prosperity", which have been exhibited in galleries and become books. A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was included in lists of best photobooks of 2013 by critic Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian, Clinton Cargill in The New York Times, Dazed, Mother Jones and American Photo magazine. Kenneth Baker, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, listed the A Period of Juvenile Prosperity exhibition at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in his top 10 list for 2013. Vince Aletti in Artforum named Brodie's show in New York as the show of the year. Photographer Alec Soth, writing in The Telegraph, included A Period of Juvenile Prosperity in his top ten photobooks of 2013. After A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was released in 2013, Brodie said he was giving up photography. However, in 2021, in an interview with AnOther Magazine, he said he was taking pictures again. Brodie explained "My camera's kind of always been around, there was just a break in my mid to late 20s. I decided I wanted to get into the trades, I didn't want to be an artist by trade. So I went to diesel mechanic school." As of 2017 Brodie is working as a diesel mechanic for the Union Pacific Railroad, along with his wife, who works as a conductor.