Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, located on the second floor of the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, presents a new exhibition with a local twist by Ian Edward White.

The exhibition, “Townes Ferry Pike,” is on display in Room 269 in the Bragg Building through Apr. 10, with a public artist talk and reception scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m.

Townes Ferry Pike traces an imagined road through the outskirts of Shelbyville, McMinnville, Woodbury, Columbia, Murfreesboro and other surrounding unincorporated communities in Middle Tennessee.

White began the project in 2022, and the project emerged from a period of transition as a place once considered temporary gradually became home.

The photographs dwell in overlooked pockets and local spaces, capturing moments of tender intimacy, quiet solitude and fleeting joy, and feature wanderers, friends and lovers on the edges of small towns and expansive natural settings.

Balancing lyrical documentary with the tension of staged tableaux, White creates portraits that activate narrative through interaction, atmosphere and setting. Rather than constructing a literal sense of place, Townes Ferry Pike offers an emotional mapping shaped by color, gesture and the haziness of a never-ending summer afternoon.

White’s work reflects on how space and time blur in these towns, engaging with the projected mysticism of the South while acknowledging photography as an act filtered through cultural and subjective perception.

About Ian Edward White

White is a Nashville-based photographer who is originally from Los Gatos, California. He received his Master of Fine Arts in photography and related media from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2022.

White has been a part of numerous group exhibitions, including “Summer Color” at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, California; “Southern Spirit” at Strata Editions in Livingston, Montana; and “Context 2025 | Juried by Shana Lopes” at Filter Space in Chicago, Illinois.

His work was also selected for the 2022 Urbanautica Institute Awards and the 2022 Lenscratch Student Prize: 25 to Watch List, among other awards and scholarships.

White’s images have been featured in periodicals such as The New York Times, Musée Magazine, Lenscratch, Fujifilm-X USA, GASP, and Transference Magazine. He has taught photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

For questions, please email gallery curator Shannon Randol at Shannon.Randol@mtsu.edu or call 615-898-2085.

About the Baldwin Gallery

MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, part of the university’s Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment, was founded in 1964 by professor Harold Baldwin to provide access to inspiring photographic works for the community.

The gallery, which is free and open to the public, is located at the top of the stairwell in the interior courtyard of the Bragg Building, 1735 Blue Raider Drive. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays when university classes are in session or by appointment.

Off-campus visitors to the gallery can obtain a temporary permit from the Parking and Transportation Services office at 205 City View Drive or pay by plate by visiting this webpage, https://bit.ly/mtvisitorparking, and clicking the appropriate link under “Visitor Parking.” Visitor permits are $4 per day. A parking map and more information are available at https://mtsu.edu/parking/.

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)