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Cover Story A photographer’s Braving the ™ vT C 7 I journey down . Min it] i rw o- Lr __ w : Like so many incurable romantics, John Guider has always been a dreamer. But in early 2002, he dreamed of a grand adventure that he couldn't get out of his head. “I decided that one day I would leave my Williamson County (Tenn.) farmhouse, walk to the creek on the edge of my property, board a canoe, and paddle as long as it took to reach the high river banks of New Orleans," says Guider, 57. The dream was fueled by a serious case of job burnout, brought on after a 30-year career as one of the South’s most successful commercial photographers. “I had reached a crossroads,” says Guider, who grew weary of the monoto nous procession of shooting products on table tops and lifeless models in glitzy fashion wear. “I felt the need to change myself.” 9 ___________ John Guider's canoe rests near his farmhouse. Inspired by Peter Jenkins' landmark 1979 best seller, A Walk Across America, Guider's dream began to crystallize before him: photo graphing people, landscapes and life all along the great Mississippi River while canoeing its mighty waters in search of adventure. “1 liked the idea of exploring nature and humanity simultaneously,” he says. “I wanted to do something that honored people who are generally forgotten; to give homage to average hardworking people. I wanted to find the real Americans.” With that resolve, on Aug. 9, 2003, Guider cast off in a 16-foot red canoe full of supplies and camera equipment at Spencer Creek behind his home in Franklin, Tenn. (pop. 53,311). It would be the first and longest leg of his mis sion: to canoe the entire length of the Mississippi River, photographing its people and places along the way. The initial trek, from Franklin to New Orleans, would take three months and see him traverse five rivers—the Harpeth, Cumber land, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi—total ing 1,200 miles. ■'• y ... f^gltsyr'" “I don’t know if it’s so much what I learned about myself, but what I affirmed within myself.” —John Guider (<Continued on page 6) Page 4 •www.americanprofile.com