For more than three decades, Jake Bacon has served as the eyes of Flagstaff. He’s the chief photographer for the Arizona Daily Sun and, as a journalist, has borne witness to countless consequential moments in northern Arizona — both great and small, joyful and harrowing. Tonight, Bacon takes the stage at the Orpheum Theater to talk about some of his favorite images, the stories behind them, and the importance of community journalism.
“An Evening with Jake Bacon” starts at 7 p.m. on Wed, April 23, at the Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff.
An extended version of this interview can be found at azdailysun.com or in the hard copy of Tuesday's paper.
Ryan Heinsius: What inspired this retrospective, if you will, and what are you hoping will come out of it?
Jake Bacon: What is an evening with Jake Bacon, apart from boring? I will be talking about my 30-year career, 30-plus-year career, in this community, documenting life on this mountain. And so, the format is going to be me on the stage showing photos, talking about photos, and really talking about what’s behind the photos in terms of how those photos tell the stories of the people that live here.
I’m blessed that my life is spent out in the community talking to the community, meeting people. I really saw it as a gift to be able to reach out to the community and hold a mirror up and reflect to the community how connected we all are.
"I’m blessed that my life is spent out in the community talking to the community, meeting people. I really saw it as a gift to be able to reach out to the community and hold a mirror up and reflect to the community how connected we all are."
RH: In addition to being a journalist, you’re really a—I would consider you a community advocate. Does modern journalism need more of that? Does modern reporting need more investment in local community?
JB: Yeah. Absolutely. We all need connection. It’s what we all look for. And in a world of social media and online, what do we all do? We all find things to follow and things to be connected to that speak to us.
I have no interest in the online world of building a following and building an audience through division. I would rather have the attention that comes from, “Let’s bring people together. Let’s not separate people apart. Let’s bring them together.”
RH: We’re in a pretty unique business where we’re exposed to the worst of humanity at times, but also sometimes the best in humanity. How has being a community journalist impacted how you see the world and people around you?
JB: It gives me the opportunity to see people at their best and at their worst. And, you know, it takes a dramatic toll seeing people at their worst. I take it personally. It’s hard not to sit in a courtroom and see the things that I’ve seen. It’s hard not to be at accident sites or scenes of devastation and to document that and not take that personally and take it on.
But that’s the minority of what I do. The vast majority of what I do is seeing people at their best and seeing people shine and seeing people being recognized for that. It’s magic. I mean, it really is magic.
And, and if I can capture that and I can share that with other people, that’s so valuable to the community. It’s valuable to me but I think, more importantly, it’s valuable to the community.
"The vast majority of what I do is seeing people at their best and seeing people shine and seeing people being recognized for that. It’s magic. I mean, it really is magic."
RH: We’ve all witnessed how media and journalism has shifted and changed in good ways, maybe in less than good ways. Nonetheless, local news, local journalism still serves a very significant and important purpose. What, to you, is the continued value of local news?
JB: That’s a great question, and that’s definitely something I’ll be speaking about during this event. If you don’t have the local news, the news doesn’t get covered. So, if KNAU isn’t out there reporting on the environment, reporting on issues on the reservations, reporting on things out there, if the newspaper isn’t at city council meetings, I think it’s vital.
If we don’t have local news and we don’t have local journalism, it doesn’t get covered. And there are really big stories that everybody cares about and if local news isn’t covering it, Phoenix news, statewide news will give it glancing coverage. National news, if it affects the nation, will cover it. But stuff that day-to-day affects us in our community, we have to have local news for.
It’s something that we all should fight to protect.
RH: Amen. Jake, thanks for talking to me today.
JB: It’s been a pleasure to be here.
