Jim Cannon is a city councilman of Phenix City, Alabama since 2012 and a retired businessman. As a local historian, Cannon began collecting historic and current photographs depicting all facets of life in Phenix City. A large display of these photographs and other memorabilia hung in the CVS store managed by Cannon for many years and became a small tourist attraction.

Over the years, Jim Cannon collected over a thousand photographs which were published in DVD form called The Cities by the River, Columbus, Georgia, Phenix City, Alabama: Memories from the Past 100 Years of Photos from the Twin Cities. He was host of Yesterday’s Memories, a television show in local CTV Beam. In 2017 he released a book featuring historic photographs called Phenix City: Yesterday’s Memories in Photos.