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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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« Three of my neighbors: Tim builds his shop casually, Patty fights off her cancer intently, Michael blows away the snow; umbilical cord discussed at IHOP; coffee-dogs-Kalib | Main | I thought they were from Russia, but I was wrong; Muzzy pees on a mail box; Kalib gets into the news »
Wednesday
Dec162009

I took many pictures today, but I need some sleep, so tonight I am only going to post Alivia's picture

DateWednesday, December 16, 2009 at 4:00AM

I took many pictures today and put over 30 selects in the queue from which I had planned to construct this blog entry. But the truth is, I am just too tired to do it. I must go to bed. I need sleep.

Maybe this is because I did not go to bed last night until 4:30 AM and then Margie woke me up at 7:00 to tell me she was going to Anchorage with Lavina. Try as I might, I could not go back to sleep after that.

I think that is why I am so tired.

It is now 11:37 PM, which is early for me but I don't care - I'm going to bed.

I was not going to make a post at all, but I had told these folks at IHOP that I would post this picture of baby Alivia today and I gave them the address so they could come and see it.

I would hate for them to come here for their first time ever and not find the picture, so here it is.

Baby Alivia, having breakfast at IHOP with people who love her.

I will still try to get in a decent selection of the others - including you, Tim, and you, Patty... Carmen, you too and your friend.

Now I must go to bed.

Sorry.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment6 Comments |
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Reader Comments (6)

"Hello, Baby Olivia" from Iowa. I wish I were at IHOP right now. Here, not ii Wasilla. It's too long a drive to Wasilla. And I'm still in my flannel nightgown. So here would be better.

December 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWhiteStone

Hey this is Alivia's Dad Good picture of her. she is suck a pretty girl, but i just wanted to let you know her name is Alivia not Olivia thanks.

December 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterBryan

We have no IHOP here in Pennsylvania. I feel like I've missed out on something big, even though I don't normally eat breakfast at all.

December 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

Alivia is lovely, and IHOP is the best - although the closest one to us is across the river in Indiana, about 15-20 miles. We haven't been in ages. When we drive that far, it's usually for Thai food.

Bill, get some rest!

December 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCynthiaC54

I have corrected the spelling, Bryan. Glad you liked the pictures.

As for all the rest of you, I think we should set a date and then you should take a few weeks off to drive to Alaska and back or you could hop on a plane and then we could all meet at IHOP in Wasilla. I would be certain that Kalib came and would extend a special invitation to baby Alivia as well.

If it should happen at one of those times when somebody has paid me some money and I am comfortable for the moment, I will buy.

If it happens at one of those times when nobody has paid me anything since I ran out of money, then it will be dutch treat.

Why do they say, "dutch treat?"

December 17, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

Top Website! Compliments on the top work!

January 7, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterPamelaAnderson

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