A Period of Juvenile Prosperity
Brodie's pictures have the day-to-day intimacy and immediacy of a journal, but the journey they describe has a clear narrative, even if the route is irrelevant. His photographs were done incidentally, with no artistic aim in view, just as the journeys were made for their own sake, rather than with the idea of making it to California, say, or the Museum of Modern Art. Maybe the experiences of riding the rails created a rhythm of seeing that took the place of years of sedentary visual training. If the hurtling convergences and diverging geometries--of track and limb--seem accidental, that is a sign of precariosly appropriate mastery. --Geoff Dyer