Mike Brodie, the Polaroid Kidd, photographed these pictures which are part of a touring exhibition - Bound by Tones of Dirt and Bone. Link
"When I was young I thought only of getting out
I said goodbye to my street, goodbye to my house
Give a man gin, give a man cards, give an inch he takes a yard,
And I rue the day that I stepped off this train.
Don't go down to Fannin Street
Don't go down to Fannin Street
Don't go down to Fannin Street
You'll be lost and never found
You can never turn around
Don't go down to Fannin Street."
Fanin St. written by Tom Waits, Kathleen Sullivan
"Brodie left home at 18 to travel the rails across America, and found himself spending three years photographing the friends and companions he encountered with a Polaroid SX-70 camera.
"Photography has made me what I am. It pulls me in all directions. It gives and takes friends, and pushes me to move miles and miles. My desire to photograph these people in the beginning is what led me to develop such great relationships with them; some being relationships that will last clear on 'til the day I die. I'm really lucky 'cause I never used to be this social."
Brodie’s pictures are authentic and show the beauty of some of America's most overlooked people. These are images captured by a member of the tribe and through a sympathetic lens." Link
Phil Och's "There But Fortune "sung by Marianne Fathfull
Later, Marianne Faithfull lived on London's Soho streets for two years, suffering from heroin addiction and anorexia nervosa. Link
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