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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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Tuesday
Jun302009

Point Lay Nalukatak: Fun and lively dance brings the celebration to an end (part 10a of 10)

DateTuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:41PM

Not long before midnight, the blanket was brought into the high school gym for the dance. They had thought about doing it outside, but the wind was very cold and the dancers wanted the Elders to be comfortable and enjoy themselves.

Julius Rexford was the first to step onto the blanket and then the Atkaan crew followed. The dance had begun.

The Atkaan crew.

Then came Thomas and the Nukapigak crew.

The Nukapigak crew. The fun dancing would continue for awhile, and then there would be motion dancing - which will be the subject of my next post, which ought to be up within half-an-hour after this one.

The drummers.

During the dance, I was called up and given a high award - because it came from the heart of my good friends in Point Lay. Julius presented and as he did, Thomas grabbed my camera with the wide angle lens and photographed me.

I was not going to toot my own horn here, but Mary Sage of Barrow put a message on Facebook last night and told me I had better post this picture. So here it is. Mary received such an award herself, as did several others who had contributed to the success of Point Lay's first Nalukatak in 72 years.

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

Well deserved Bill, and thank you for showing us as who we are. We are nothing without each other.

July 1, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterNunathraaq

Glad to see you happy with a certificate.

July 2, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkavitha

Thank you, Nunathraaq. Your words mean a great deal to me.

Glad to see your comment, Kavitha. I am happy that you are traveling with me through northern Alaska.

July 4, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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