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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Thursday
Oct232008

I happen upon Sarah Palin, in the grip of a condom huckster, as I walk through Times Square in New York City

DateThursday, October 23, 2008 at 9:24PM


I took a bus from JFK Airport that dropped me off at Times Square, where I needed to catch the subway to the place where I am staying.

To my surprise I saw Governor Sarah Palin standing on the sidewalk in front of me, her waist in the grip of a huckster.

"Obama, McCain and Palin condoms," he shouted out to all who passed by, "get your Obama, McCain and Palin condoms, right here! Obama and McCain condoms."

"Hey!" I said, "believe it or not, I am from Wasilla, Alaska."

"I just sent an order of condoms to Wasilla!" he gushed back.

"Yeah?" I responded, "I've got to take a picture of this."

"You have to buy a condom!" he said. "You have to! You can't take a picture if you don't buy a condom."

"You're in a public place," I answered. "I can see you, I can photograph you!"

I raised my pocket camera and shot. He turned Sarah to the side and ducked and hid.

Seemed somehow appropriate.

If had been armed with my SLR, I could have photographed his flight, but this pocket camera shoots one frame, then makes you wait awhile before it will shoot again.

I briefly contemplated pursuing the Sarah Palin toting condom huckster to see if I could get a better frame or two, but then I would have had to leave my rolling suitcase sitting alone on the sidewalk in Times Square.

I did not want to do that.

 

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment2 Comments |
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Reader Comments (2)

There is as much depth to the real Sarah Palin as that one in NYTimes.

-lisa

October 28, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterlllllissssasa

I think its great that you can tell that "Huckster" that yes sir indeed I will take your picture! I wish the point and shoot could work as fast as your old camera for the other possible shots as well. I hope that NY was as much fun for you as it was for Melanie and myself.

October 28, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterCharlie

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