PLAYING FAVORITES
Documenting a
TOWN 2020 releases from Soulstice Publishing celebrate joy of the mundane
T
he faces and places that give Flagstaff its unique character are on loving display in this past winter’s Walking Flagstaff: A Photo Journal by George Breed. Armed with his trusty point-andshoot Olympus SP-800UZ—the third of its kind after the first one broke and the second was stolen—Breed has been documenting life in Flagstaff ever since forgoing a car for his feet in 2009. Retired from his previous life as a psychologist, martial artist, Marine and trail hiker, he could roam wherever his spirit and feet took him. When he steps out his front door, he turns down random streets and alleyways, guided solely by his whims. He captures pet cats sitting in windowsills, osprey and great blue herons catching a meal at Francis Short Pond, performance artists at Wheeler Park and Heritage Square, flowers illuminated by the sun just so, pleasing textures and color patterns, long-gone murals. “I had no car and did not want one,” he said. “As I walked, I became friends with Flagstaff’s street people, business owners, politicians, river runners, canyon hikers, buskers, street musicians and photographers, artists of paint and jewelry and acrobatics. I quickly added a camera to my daily stroll, to capture and share what I saw.” He posted photos to a blog called “Walking Flagstaff,” which later blossomed into a popular Facebook page.
Jake Bacon, chief photographer of the Arizona Daily Sun, considers Breed a mentor. “What draws me to George’s work is how he approaches his subjects over time, subjects that each of us sees as staples of our community, that we see every day and that, to a degree, fade into the background,” he wrote in the book’s opening essay. “George looks at those subjects with fresh eyes and keeps looking. ... This is what sets George apart. With the simplest of cameras, he sees new ways to capture the beauty all around us.” Bacon served as photo editor on the book project, sifting through some 4,500 photos, themselves chosen by Breed from a collection of nearly 50,000 images. The final book presents 235 images, plus two dozen of Breed’s short writings about walking and photography. “Walking produces calmness of mind. Calmness of mind allows clear seeing,” he explained on one page. On another: “I walk around until I stop trying to accomplish something. Then I start taking photos.” The collection reflects a Flagstaff of the past, with buildings and residents who have since left standing proudly in the images on the page. It reminds us that there is joy in the mundane if we just take the time to slow down and appreciate it. Soulstice’s Walking Flagstaff and
The cover of George Breed’s Walking Flagstaff features “Sound of Flight,” a large mural by local artists Sky Black and The Mural Mice on the east side of the Orpheum Theater. COURTESY SOULSTICE PUBLISHING
Just a Teacher—reviewed on the next page—can be purchased at Bright Side Bookshop, 18 N. San Francisco St., or directly through the publisher at www. soulsticepublishing.com. Spring 2021 namlm.com
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