Top
A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

All photos and text © Bill Hess, unless otherwise noted 
All support is appreciated
Bill Hess's other sites
Search
Navigation
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.

Blog archive
Blog arhive - page view
« Two girls from Point Hope photograph themselves | Main | A wreck at Parks & Main; another in the kitchen »
Tuesday
Dec162008

The past 20 hours: three scenes from Wards Road

DateTuesday, December 16, 2008 at 11:39AM

Jacob and Muzzy, top of Wards Road, last night's walk.

Car coming down Ward's Road, noon walk.

Van off the road, today's walk. Jacob and I first spotted this van on last night's walk. A car was coming down the hill, so I focused on this vehicle to see, if by chance, the reflection of the headlights of that car off the snow might cast enough light on this vehicle for me to take a photograph.

As I stood there, camera pointed at the disabled van, a car pulled up and stopped. Sitting at the wheel was a middle-aged lady with silver streaks in her hair and beside her, a young man - maybe late teens or early 20's, his features slender and sharp.

They looked at us with what appeared to be a mix of hostility and suspicion.

"That's my vehicle," the young man stated emphatically, "I slid off the road earlier today."

It was clear to me that he suspected that we might have some kind of evil intent towards his vehicle.

"You slid off the road, huh? That must have given you a thrill."

He assured me that it had not; that he had been calm and collected through the entire descent and that it was no big deal. He had even managed to drive the car enough to reposition it a bit so that it would be easier to haul out.

"Looks like you're a little short on manpower to pull it out right now," I noted the obvious.

"We're going to come back and get it tomorrow," he said.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," I told him. "It should be safe. Nobody but a pedestrian could see it and there won't be many of them, maybe just us."

I wished him luck. They went there way, we went our way.

I do not blame him for being suspicious. Cars left alongside the road overnight out here often greet the next morning with their wheels and tires gone, their windows smashed, anything of value removed.

But now it is day and the car is still there, in view for all who pass by to see. Hopefully, they will yank it out of there before dark.

This time of year, if it isn't dark, it soon will be.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | CommentPost a Comment |
in , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Alert
Comment Moderation Enabled
Your comment will not appear until it has been cleared by a website editor.

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.