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
« The culprit | Main | Kalib's first birthday, part 2: The one year-old throws an insane party »
Sunday
Dec282008

Kalib takes a midnight trip to the emergency room; the wind blows

DateSunday, December 28, 2008 at 8:58PM

Last night, Kalib got scratched by his cat, Martigny, who has always seemed to love him. It happened just before midnight, and because the cut on his lip went very deep, we took him to the emergency room at Mat-Su Regional Hospital. I have more to blog about on this subject, but tonight I have neither the time nor the energy, so I will hold it until I do.

Let it be enough to say that, even though a granddad knows that his grandson must suffer numerous little injuries as part of the natural course of growing - and please, let them all be little injuries - it is none-the-less a tough thing to see when it happens. And it was tough on the parents, too. Kalib, too. Very tough on Kalib, and he did not know why.

Here is Kalib, in his grandma's arms, in my office, right after the scratch, immediately before the trip to the emergency room.

Just now, Kalib came into my office, held in his mother's arms. "What do you think, Kalib?" I asked, as I pointed to the above picture on my computer screen. "That's you."

He smiled real big, raised his arms into the air and, with fists clenched, pumped them up and down happily, kicking his little legs as he did so.

This is how the weather has been for the past 48 hours straight. Blowing and blowing, the wind ripping down the Knik and Matanuska glaciers to blast its way mercilessly through this valley. Cold, too.

I have more to blog on this, also, but will hold off for the same reasons stated above.

And this is how it is at the moment, right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.

My home town.

 

 

Click on any photo to see a larger copy.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment3 Comments |
in , , , , , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (3)

Oh poor Kalib. It's amazing how our children's (and grandchildren's) pain causes us so much pain. I just wanted to note that I love this blog and have been reading from the beginning. Thank you for sharing your home with us.

December 29, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAutumn

I did not expect to see Kalib's face with those angry looking scratches when I came over for a visit. Hope little Kalib is not seriously hurt, this is so distressing for you all.

I enjoyed the photos of Kalib's first birthday party and ones from his 'birth' day as well. Our youngest was born Dec. 21st - 23 yrs. ago.

December 29, 2008 | Unregistered Commenternina

I appreciate the comments. Thank you!

December 30, 2008 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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.