A Period of Juvenile Prosperity

At 17, Mike Brodie hopped his first train near Pensacola, aiming for Mobile—and rode the wrong direction to Jacksonville instead. Days later he rode home, arriving exactly where he started.

That misdirection opened something: years of wandering America by whatever cost nothing—walking, hitchhiking, freight—and pictures made with a camera found stuffed behind a car seat.

The archive became one of the singular documents of American drift; A Period of Juvenile Prosperity drew acclaim in Artforum, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Telegraph, and American Photo, and was shortlisted for the Paris Photo/Aperture First PhotoBook Award.