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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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Friday
Jun052009

I put my mind back into India - and to Wainwright, where Jason Ahmaogak and the Iceberg 14 Crew landed a whale today

DateFriday, June 5, 2009 at 11:21PM

This waking day, June 5, 2009, is now 21.5 hours long for me and I feel a little bit sleepy. I had planned to get back to blogging the wedding before I went to bed, but, instead, I think I will go to bed. But here is one image, just to put the mindset of this blog back in India, at the wedding.

Compared to a typical American wedding, which is simple and over with quickly, an Indian wedding is long and complex, so I have a challenge to figure out how to condense the huge amount of photos that I have left into something that can summarize it quickly. If I keep going as I have been going, I will still be blogging this next month, but I want to get it done soon, so I will sleep on it and try to figure it out tomorrow.

Remember Jason and the Wainwright Iceberg 14 whaling crew? 

They caught a bowhead whale today. Up until today, it had been an extremely tough season in Wainwright. Normally, it would have been over well before now, with about four or five whales landed, but the ice just did not cooperate. As recently as this morning, I received an email from a Wainwright friend, telling me that the ice was still closed.

As for Jason, he had left a message on facebook stating that he was not giving up, but would stay out there as long as possible.

Jason - you and all your family and crew have done honor to the memory of your great aapa and aaka (grandfather and grandmother). I feel so happy and proud, just to know you, to be a small part of your life.

A 21.5 hour day? Ha! I know this one will probably be a 48 hour day for you - maybe longer. And I know you will be smiling, loving every minute of it - so pleased that a whale gave you the honor of feeding your community. Wish I were with you.

See you at Nalukatak!

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment1 Comment |
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Reader Comments (1)

Bill, it really is an honor because one of Dad's last instructions was not to stop "feeding the community of Wainwright" as much as we could. It has started to sink in now that we're doing a few things in storing away the muktuk and meat. The boys will tell you all about it the next time you visit and the girls will tell you all about the fun we had cooking and baking for the first feast on land on the 7th. Take care.

June 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMaak & Larry

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