I tell you these stories because these things happen to everyone. It's not about being starched or polished or cute or polite. It's about having ears that stick out, about breaking another glass. It's about seeing something for a the first time and making a million mistakes and not ever getting completely discouraged.
- Maira Kalman
Mike Brodie is a self-trained American photographer who is best known by his pseudonym "Polaroid Kidd." Brodie left home at 18 to travel the rails across America. A friend gave him a camera and he found himself spending three years photographing the friends and companions he encountered along the way. His photographs largely depict what he refers to as "travel culture", train-hoppers, vagabonds, squatters and hobos.
It's difficult not to feel an affinity for this ragtag group of wanderers. They remind me of all the wandering I've done myself - all the glorious fumbling, the painful missteps, all the exhilaration that comes from the freedom to explore.
May we all have the latitude
to make mistakes
and never get completely discouraged.
More photographs by Mike Brodie here.
