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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Wednesday
Nov192008

Uncle Ted: On one of his worst days, an image from a good one; A dog I met as I walked today


Senator Stevens, "Uncle Ted," in Kaktovik (ANWR), 1986:

This was the day that Ted Stevens, who has served Alaska in the US Senate for 40 years, conceded the election to Mark Begich, Mayor of Anchorage. I thought perhaps I would write some wise words, about how this is both such a sad and happy day for Alaska, to go along with this picture, but I will leave the words of wisdom to the pundits and editorial writers. 

I have taken many pictures of Senator Stevens over the years, in various places in Alaska and Washington, DC as well, but this is the one that I think of first when I hear him referred to as "Uncle Ted."

The boy is John Lampe of the Iñupiat Eskimo village of Kaktovik, the only community within the boundaries of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

John is a man now.

Read Stevens departure from the Senate in the Anchorage Daily News

 

Late this morning, I encountered this dog on Tamar Loop:

By now, it should be obvious that I encounter many dogs when I go walking - some friendly, some not. I encountered this one today - trash pickup day in my Wasilla neighborhood. The dog was loose and I do not know where it lives.

As the dog approached, I could tell that it was happy to see me.

The dog stopped. I acknowledged it.

The dog then continued on its way.

 

 

 

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Reader Comments (2)

I call this dog Wolverie. He looks half wolve

November 20, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterStandtall

Hi Standtall. Nice to see you here. Of all dogs that I know of, it is the husky that is most closely related to the wolf. In fact, despite the fact that it is illegal now to breed them, there a quite a few husky/wolf mixes here in the good old AK.

November 20, 2008 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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