[Gallatin, TN - December 3, 2025] The Art Gallery at Volunteer State Community College is proud to announce its upcoming exhibition RETRO 50 by Nashville photographer, Alan Messer. The show opens December 4th, 2025, and will be on view through February 27th, 2026, with an artist discuss TBA.
Alan Messer is a renowned, legendary British photographer based in Nashville, known primarily for his extensive work in music photography, particularly of iconic rock, pop, and country musicians. Messer has been photographing musicians for five decades. His career started at sixteen on December 4th, 1967, working from Dezo Hoffmann's London studio as a freelance and as a staff photographer for the Record Mirror, pop magazine. During the seventies, Alan was the resident Old Grey Whistle Test photographer (BBC TV), toured briefly with Iggy Pop and Deep Purple and photographed many visiting touring American bands and artists, either in his London studio or on the road. Excited by America and its music, he moved to Nashville in 1978 to open a studio. An amazing opportunity to photograph the Country Music scene unfolded, as his British style of photography attracted musicians, record companies and legendary artists like, Johnny Cash. During the ’80s, Messer’s career soared as a prolific primary Nashville photographer, often shooting a session or an album cover every day. Some of those sessions were in his studio or in Austin, Texas with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson or Joe Ely. An acclaimed photographer, Alan has hundreds of albums and CD's to his credit and a Grammy for album packaging photography/design.
Some musicians Messer photographed include: John Lennon, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Rolling Stones, Small Faces, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, The Who, Diana Ross, Deep Purple, Elton John, Bill Haley, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, Tanya Tucker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lucinda Williams, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, The Oak Ridge Boys, and more ….
Additionally, Ken Burns featured some of Alan’s photographs in his 2019 PBS documentary, “Country Music”. Also “JUNE” a movie released in January 2023, currently streaming on Paramount Plus about June Carter Cash features many of Alan’s photographs and video footage.
Currently Alan is working on his archives, a documentary and two coffee table books, NASHVILLE and a Johnny CASH book. Alan dedicated master photographer who shares the historic music world through his lens. He always carries a camera. www.alanmesser.com.
For more information on Vol State's Art Gallery, please visit https://www.volstate.edu/humanities/art/gallery.
