John Noltner wanted to do more with his photography career. He wished to carry his own voice and make a difference in the world.

Noltner, a 1990 graduate of UW-Eau Claire, has indeed gone down his own path to create an exhibit that has gained nationwide recognition.

“A Peace of My Mind” is a documentary project exhibit exploring the meaning of peace through photographs of ordinary yet diverse individuals. It will be on display through May 12 in the Davies Center, Haas Fine Arts Center, Hibbard Hall and McIntyre Library.

The subjects are each showcased on a 24-by-36 inch canvas that includes their name, a short biography and a 250 word excerpt from their interview about what peace means to them. The exhibit is meant to get the audience to think about peace around the world, Noltner said.

“People throw around the word ‘peace’ kind of loosely,” Noltner said. “The goal of the exhibit is to not tell people the meaning of peace but encourage people to join the conversation.”

Noltner is currently a freelance photographer working out of Minneapolis. He has traveled the world for over 20 years, experiencing other cultures and taking photographs that have appeared in magazines such as Forbes, National Geographic, World Traveler, Reader’s Digest and Smithsonian.

However, he captured all of his images for this project in the Twin Cities area. The range of subjects of “A Peace of My Mind” is wide, from homeless people to a professor from Iraq to a man who is a president of a Lutheran church in the Central African Republic. Noltner said that even though the project was produced in his own backyard, it is meant to have a worldview to show that different types of people exist everywhere.

“There are some really ordinary people in this project who talk about the changes they are trying to make in their life and in their world,” Noltner said. “My biggest impression as I went through this project is that we all can make a difference.”

His efforts led “A Peace of My Mind” to become more than just a photography exhibit. The project has grown into a website, a series of podcasts and ultimately a book, forwarded by Ela Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. The book received a 2011 Midwest Book Award gold medallion and a silver medalist at the 2012 Independent Publishers Book Awards.

As a student at Eau Claire, Noltner worked with Rick Mickelson, the former photography coordinator and current administrative program manager at Learning Technology Services.  Mickelson said that he is not surprised at how far Noltner has taken this project.

“I noticed right away that he was an innate empathetic kind of person,” Mickelson said. “He also had a wide variety of talents, so the combination was a good hint that this was a field he would do well in.”

Noltner and Mickelson worked together to select three students who were asked to interview local residents and students about what peace means to them. One of those students, Phillip Schladweiler, said the experience was humbling.

“It sounds really easy to just ask someone what peace means to them, but it’s a difficult question when you really think about it,” Schladweiler said. “I am now more upfront and more open with communicating with individuals.”

Noltner has displayed his project  at campuses, galleries and museums all across the country since the exhibit became a traveling one in 2010 and is happy to bring it back to his alma mater. He said the issue of peace belongs with the youth, which is why he brings his exhibit to college campuses, because they are the ones that will bring about change.

“If we wait for our political leaders to take care of this for us, we’re going to be waiting forever,” Noltner said. “In our own lives, we can make day to day choices that affect the larger world.”