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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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Wednesday
Jun242009

I arrive to spend one night in Barrow, Pamiuq communicates with Dawson

DateWednesday, June 24, 2009 at 11:22PM

There was a delay of nearly an hour in Fairbanks, but finally we took off and headed north. After I had a good chat with the lady who sat next to me, so thrilled to be returning to her Native home of Point Lay to attend the first whaling Nalukataq feast there in about 70 years, the jet passed over the rotting shore-ice of the Chukchi Sea and descended on final toward Barrow.

According to the pilot, the temperature was 32 degrees (0c). When I stepped off the plane, the wind was howling.

It was just a few minutes before 8:00 PM.

The boy is Pamiuq, three-year old grandson to my hosts, Savik and Myrna Ahmaogak. The dog is Dawson. There may be glass between them, but they communicate. The stained glass bowhead is the work of Roy Ahmaogak, Savik and Myrna's son. Photo taken at just a few minutes before 11:00 PM with the G10 pocket camera.

My hosts greeted me with roast and potatoes, which was good.

Tomorrow, I head for Point Lay - main course: bowhead. Side dishes - caribou, ducks, fish and all kind of nutritious northern food, plus cake, coffee and tea.

Visually, I will share it with you. If not right away, that means I could not find a wireless connection, but I am optimistic that I will.

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Reader Comments (2)

Have a great trip!

June 25, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkavitha

Enjoy your stay...

P.S: I'm thinking of you too often & will miss you & your mails. The time we spent together here in India is so fresh in my mind that I get tempted to call Vasanthy & ask here if you were ready to go out for a walk with me! Then the realization dawns - the departure - the hidden tears that only Anil was aware of - and many other things like the cats... Wish Alaska was just a couple of blocks away & I could knock at your door any time I wish to see you? Miss you...

June 25, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSandy

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