Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Tennessee Photographer John Guider’s Journey, 
The River Inside, opens at the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island River Park - Memphis

Memphis, TN, June 9. 2009 – Tennessee photographer John Guider stepped into his 16-foot canoe on Spencer Creek in Williamson County five years ago and began his journey down the Harpeth, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers, paddling toward the mighty Mississippi and his final destination of New Orleans. The River Inside, which opens at the Mississippi River Museum on July 20th, tells the story of Guider’s solo journey through the camera’s eye. The opening Reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, August 7th at River Terrace on Mud Island at the Memphis riverfront. The event will run from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.

Guider, who completed the upper portions of the Mississippi in three subsequent solo canoe trips taken from 2005 to 2007, captured more than 10,000 scenes of America’s waterways on film during his trips. He then selected and processed just 75 platinum prints representative of the people and places he encountered along the way. The images offer a revealing perspective on the natural and controlled inland waterways that bisect the nation.

In a journal he kept chronicling his daily routine, Guider recorded the life he observed along the riverbanks and the details of what he felt were narrow escapes from life-threatening situations.

He often paddled eight to 10 hours a day and was sometimes alone for five to six days at a time; the quiet, almost haunting solitude of Guider’s journeys are vividly evident in the resulting photographs. Artifacts from the trips, along with his canoe, river maps, and camera equipment will also be included in the exhibition.

The exhibit’s title, The River Inside, which was drawn from the importance of rivers as prime conduits of vital commodities, and as overlooked by-ways, speaks to the resonance between life-sustaining water sources and human beings.

A book authored by Guider, which shares the same title — The River Inside, will be available for purchase during the exhibition. Published by Tennessee’s FRP Books, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southwestern/Great American, Inc. and designed by McNeely, Pigott & Fox Public Relations, Guider’s book is a compelling narrative of his life-changing journey, as well as a work of art, with high-impact photographs and graphics. With a cast of colorful characters, a series of near-deadly mishaps, a respect for the Mississippi as a wonder of nature and of commerce, and the wit and wisdom of a true poet, The River Inside is a one-of-a-kind tale with an important message: To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, “The seas are around us, but the river is in us.

Guider, whose photography is in the corporate collections of Broadcast Music, Inc., Dollar General, Opryland Hotel, Vanderbilt Hospital, and Warner Brothers, earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University and studied photography under the tutelage of Hasselblad Foundation International Photography award winner Ernst Haas and International Center of Photography Affinity Award winner Jay Maisel. His images have been exhibited at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Red Mountain Museum of Art, The Parthenon, the Nashville Public Library, Nashville International Airport, as well as at many area galleries.

The River Inside is proudly sponsored by
AT&T
Memphis Riverfront Development Corporation, Bass, Berry & Sims
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and
Tennessee Valley Authority
The exhibition is organized by the Tennessee State Museum and sponsored by the Mississippi River Corridor - Tennessee

The exhibition will be on view through October 31st at the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island River Park. Hours are 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. The Museum is closed on Mondays.
General admission to the Park is free but the Museum admission (which includes roundtrip Monorail Ride and Guided River Walk tour) is $ 8.00 for adults and $ 5.00 for youths (5-11). Children under 4 and under are free.

A Teachers Workshop will be held in August and student tours will run weekly during the exhibition tour in Memphis.


John Guider’s photography from the The River Inside:

Boy Fishing from a Harbor Tug Mooring Shed,
Mississippi River near Natchez, MS

Robert, Deckhand on the Harbor Tug Marjorie, near Natchez, MS

Canoe at River's Edge, Sunset along the Mississippi River

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

[...]"Tennessee Photographer John Guider’s Journey, 
The River Inside, opens at the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island River Park - Memphis"[...]


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Anonymous said...

Canoe at River's Edge, Sunset along the Mississippi River really amazing..


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Anonymous said...

Great to see this..really worth visiting this blog..


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