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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
Nov122009

A short walk on a beautiful, snowy, day

DateThursday, November 12, 2009 at 4:00AM

Oh, damnit! I put up all those posts last Thursday so that I would not have to put any up this week and what am I doing? Putting up new posts every day! 

Well, a very nice snow was falling as I walked and I thought, "I will get one image and add it as an addendum to the Family Restaurant post" that I had originally scheduled to go up in this time slot.

But after I got home, I wanted to share the entire walk, so here it is, beginning with these three girls, Tristan, Trimilin and Destiny, just a way's down Sarah's Way. Actually, I doubt that Trimilin's name is Trimilin at all, but that's how I remember. I stand to be corrected.

Oh well. It shouldn't take that long to post this.

I will just move the catch-up Family Restaurant post that was going to go up this morning to Sunday, November 15. It took place on a Sunday, anyway.

I was walking down Ward's when I got a feeling to turn around and look behind me. When I did, I saw these two young moose crossing the road. I think their mom must have already crossed when I was looking the other way.

 

After I turned away from the moose, I saw this pickup, being spun in brodies atop the Ward's Road hill.

Brody spin #2.

Brody spin #3.

Brody spin, #4.

A different truck coming down the hill.

Tracks left by the brody-spinning truck.

Back on Sarah's Way - a lady who has two dogs shovels her driveway.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment8 Comments |
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Reader Comments (8)

We do not have snow. I am not complaining. Spinning brodies? Here we call it 'doing donuts'. One time I was driving past a closed supermarket. In the vacant parking lot was an unmistakeable Camaro doing donuts and... *deep cleansing breaths* Well, just let me think of that boy in footed pajamas for a while....

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

It is so inspiring to me that you find beauty in all the little things that make life.. i wish i could see the world through your eyes :)

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAsh

Ash, you ARE seeing the world through Bill's eyes! Thank you again, Bill. Here in Minnesota we are having temperatures in the 40's and 50's. No snow that's lasted for us, but that's okay. It comes, it's beautiful, and so far anyway -- it goes.

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterGrandma Nancy

Look at all that snow!! Wow! Love that you caught those moose, that's so beautiful and looks so peaceful.

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMikey

Oh wow!! It's 70F here in the California desert where I live. I could use a little snow now and then, not enough to shovel though!!

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWakeUpAmerica

I think its in the heart of most residents of Wasilla to want to spin brodies after I witnessed seeng a Geo Metro spinng brodies (on Dry ground before the snow hit) near the Gas Station where the two police cars were sitting at the pumps with their lights flashing when I last came out to visit with you and the family! This fresh snow makes it easier to accomplish some really fun brodies though!

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCharlie

I know what Ash is saying....how many of us see a brody pattern on ice and think to photograph it? or think to photograph a car doing brodies?

November 12, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdahli22

I have enjoyed all of these comments. It's very late and I am too lazy to respond to each one, but thank you, all.

November 15, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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