Very Cool Exhibit

In 2009, I worked with John Guider, a local Nashville photographer who had launched the fabulous journey of canoeing the Mississippi River.  Of course John took fabulous photographs along the way and included many of them in his book, The River Inside.

Many people within the local community, including David Fox with McNeely, Piggot and Fox as well as Craig Philip, CEO of Ingram Barge helped make a traveling exhibit of the adventure possible. The exhibit debuted at the Tennessee Museum and has traveled extensively since then. On Monday, July 25th the exhibit will be located in terminal C of the Nashville International Airport.

Details of the exhibit are included later in this post via a press release from the Nashville International Airport . For a fun time please check out the John Guider website and journey with him by ordering a copy of The River Inside here.

Arts at the Airport Brings ‘The River Inside’
Showcases local photographer John Guider’s canoe trip down the Mississippi River

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority’s Arts at the Airport program is bringing life on the river inside the terminal—literally. Complete with a canoe suspended from the ceiling at Nashville International Airport, a new exhibit entitled “The River Inside” will feature photographs by Nashville resident John Guider from a three-month journey down the Mississippi River. The photo exhibit, part of the art program’s Flying Solo Series, opens July 25 and will run through July 2012. The exhibit is located in the C Concourse food court.

“By hosting local artists’ work, Nashville International Airport introduces its passengers and public to the culture and feel of Nashville and Middle Tennessee,” said Raul Regalado, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. “The Arts at the Airport program is one way we continue to provide excellent service to our passengers, strategic partners and employees—known as the Nashville Airports Experience.”

Guider is a successful Nashville commercial photographer who stepped away from the comfortable routine of his life and challenged his mind and body in ways he never thought possible. With virtually no camping or paddling experience, he bought a canoe and set off on a solitary, artistic adventure that led him from the creek behind his farmhouse to the Harpeth, Cumberland, Ohio, and eventually the Mississippi Rivers, until he reached the Crescent City—New Orleans.

After completing the three-month journey, Guider began looking at the more than 2,000 photographs he had taken. He experimented with printing techniques, and what developed before his eyes were powerful images that pulled him right back to the immediacy of life on the river. He sat down and began to write, expanding his sketchy daily journal entries—often written in the margins of water-soaked maps—by delving more deeply into remembered experiences.

Guider began to imagine his photographs and stories as both an exhibition and a catalogue of images accompanied by texts. He spent a year learning the artistic discipline of the almost-lost platinum print process and pounding words out onto the page. “The River Inside” is not only Guider’s compelling story of his life-changing journey, but also a stunning visual narration of more than 70 platinum prints.