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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.

Blog archive
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« 2009 in review - September: The battle for Kalib's affections; goats, flag, Grand Opening of Metro Cafe; last berry; dogs: Patti gains against her cancer | Main | 2009 in review - July: Kalib goes south, I go north; Margie gets injured all over again »
Thursday
Dec312009

2009 in review - August: Kalib, Muzzy, Royce and a magical cloud; The Spirit of Wasilla rolls through Wasilla; horses; the mushroom cover up; the Mahoney's: Patti fights for her life.

DateThursday, December 31, 2009 at 10:45PM

Okay. It is 10:34 PM. This year ends in one hour and 24 minutes. I took a break to have dinner, to go to DG and get a banana split, to read the NY Times editorials. Now, if I'm going to get this month-by-month review done before the year ends, I've got to fly.

Does this picture really need an explanation?

Kalib discovers clouds passing by in the sky.

You know I love the train. How thrilled I was when the engine named "The Spirit of Wasilla" rolled into sight.

Horses, running the other way.

This is Pia, who has a fine garden. When I took this picture, I asked her if she was going to enter anything in the state fair. "No," she said. That kind of thing is for younger people.

Then, when the prize winners for the state fair were announced in the Anchorage Daily News, there she was, in a picture, along with a 963 pound mushroom - the biggest entered.

Well, maybe it wasn't quite 963 pounds, but I don't have time to go back and find out the true size.

It was a mighty damn big mushroom and Pia was might sneaky.

She didn't want anybody to know until she won.

I pedaled my bike to Grotto Iona, which I had passed many times in my car, and went in and discovered a small, family graveyard. I gave myself the assignment to learn about Paul and Iona Mahoney, who are buried here. 

I haven't a chance yet, but I am in contact with their daughter and I will yet "meet" them, so you can too.

Margie, at the Alaska Native Medical Center for a checkup.

This is Patti, who loves to bike, ski, sail and be fit. Her doctor had just told her life was over, that the cancer she had could not be stopped. She had just months to live. No more treatment was necessary, she should go home and prepare to die.

Patti rebelled against that doctor and decided to fight for her life.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment3 Comments |
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Reader Comments (3)

what happened to patti? did she get to greet 2010 with us? (i might know if i'd followed you daily, sorry, i just jump over from gryphen on occasion. i hope she did...)

i love your photos. just a life (but what a life!) in pictures on the web for us all to see. thank you. i hope you and yours are all doing well.

happy new-year!

December 31, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterluna1580

p.s. i remember the kalib & royce pic from before, it's strikingly lovely, what a moment to capture :)

December 31, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterluna1580

Love the two pictures of Kalib and his buddies :)

January 1, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAsh

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