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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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Monday
Nov302009

A nice beam of light falls upon Kalib; a dog in the road draws some honks

DateMonday, November 30, 2009 at 9:25AM

Kalib, just a little bit ago, sitting on the couch as a beam of light falls through the window upon him.

On my walk, I heard a car honk and then another, followed by still a third. I thought perhaps there was trouble brewing, a gang fight about to take place on Seldon Street. I turned to look, it was just this dog, out in the road, blocking traffic.

 

Now, I begin a new short term plan. Until I get on top of things, I am going to limit this blog to just two images a day. I was going to make it just one, but then I realized that Kalib's fan club, particularly those down in the Navajo Nation, might grow very irritated with me if that one picture did not include Kalib. Most importantly, Kalib needs to put a smile on his Grandma Mary's face everyday.

So I decided to make it two pictures - one from out and about, plus a daily Kalib.

So here you go.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment5 Comments |
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Reader Comments (5)

bill, i thought of you yesterday when scott and i went bike-riding. i thought, i should've brought my camera like bill brings his. o the glorious sights we saw. we followed the pennypack creek (scott insists i pronounce it 'crick' like the natives do) as it meandered in the woods and then we came upon glorious open country - meadows - still green - and we also passed by 'the lord's new church,' we live in the world headquarters of the swedenborgian religion, a fascinating denomination of christianity. okay, gotta go stir my fish chowder and tend to my whole wheat bread.

November 30, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRuth Z Deming

bill can you do me a favor and send me your email address? mine is ruthdeming@comcast.net. thanks!

November 30, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRuth Z Deming

Oh, Ruth! Fish chowder and homemade bread! I'll be right over. (Not! - I'm 4,439 miles away – about 3 days 6 hours -- in Western Massachusetts!) But chowda and fresh bread do sound awfully good!

November 30, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlbert Lewis

That must be a son beam on Kalib.

November 30, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

Its funny how the web can seem like such a small place. Albert, you got me curious with your western MA location so I checked out your website. I grew up in Springfield MA.

Bill, hope to see you regularly posting nice long blogs again soon. Everyday I come by here to see how my "neighbor" is doing. Me, I am wishing for more snow. This wind and warmer temps just isnt what I want. I could have stayed in WA state for this weather!

November 30, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLisaJ

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