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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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Saturday
May022009

Wainwright whalers make a boat ramp while waiting for a good east wind to reopen the lead

DateSaturday, May 2, 2009 at 11:07PM

This is where the snowmachine ride from the previous post took me - offshore out onto the sea ice a few miles north of Wainwright. That's whaling captain Jason Ahmaogak walking farthest from the camera to study the thin, broken jumbled ice that has closed the lead.

Just a few days before I arrived, the lead was open right in front of where Jason is. He and other members of the Iceberg 14 crew had launched their boat and chased whales.  Under the leadership of Jason's late grandfather, Ben Ahmaogak, Sr., Iceberg 14 has long been an exceptionally successful and respected whaling crew.

Ben died in May of last year and passed the title of whaling captain on to Jason, who has an exceptional crew of both men and women behind him - including his Aunt Mary Ellen, who has thrown the harpoon and shot the heavy, brass, shoulder gun and brought bowhead home.

A jet passes over shards of the thin, jumbled ice.

When wind and current again takes away the ice that Jason stands on to reopen the lead, the edge of the shore-fast ice will be several feet above the water. Before this happens, the crew wants to make a boat ramp. Working with a chain saw, shovel and pick axes, they begin.

John Hopson, another whaling captain, uses the saw to cut into the ice.

 

You can see the ramp forming behind John.

Taking a break.

Time to eat some caribou roast.

Then back to work.

Finally, the job is just about done. Terry Tagarook gives John Hopson a pat and jokes that they need to make their trails as smooth as John's head. Terry is a school teacher and, with the exception of me, taught every single person working out here this day.

That's not quite true, because Terry has taught me, too, just not in the classroom.

Lolo carries tools out of the boat ramp, the closed lead behind her.

Wainwright whalers. 

I am home in Wasilla now, for just three more days. I did not want to leave the whalers, but I have a commitment of the heart in India and so I did.

I also have a commitment of the heart to this community, Wainwright. If I am fortunate enough to enjoy good health and continued survival, I will be back.

Before I leave, I will post a few more images from Wainwright and maybe Barrow, too.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment2 Comments |
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Reader Comments (2)

Bill, thanks so much for this wonderful blog. I hope you will be able to keep it up while you are traveling so we can hear all about your adventures in India.

May 3, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWendy Warnick

Bill that was a great pic of Soundraya, she looks fab with the kitten, oh yes, she is an animal lover :).<p>
Your blog is really great, I am eagerly waiting to see the pics you clicked at the wedding.

May 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkavitha

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