Top
A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

All photos and text © Bill Hess, unless otherwise noted 
All support is appreciated
Bill Hess's other sites
Search
Navigation
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
Blog arhive - page view
« Float plane landing on Sarah Palin's lake, and other Wasilla scenes: will soon continue the India series | Main | Anil returns from the temple - the wedding will continue »
Friday
Jun052009

Meanwhile, back on Sarah's Way in Wasilla... (I will return to the wedding and India, shortly, after one more Wasilla-Palmer post)

DateFriday, June 5, 2009 at 1:52PM

The night before last, at a little after 9:00 PM, I accompanied Jacob, Kalib and Muzzy on a short walk. And for you, any of my Indian friends and relatives who might be reading this, yes, you read the time correctly. The sun would yet go down, but it never would get dark. It does not get dark here this time of year.

That part of being in India was a little bit hard for me. The days were so short for this time of year. I can take short days in the winter, but come spring and summer, I can hardly bear a dark night. This is a little hard for some people to understand - until they live through an Alaska winter.

As for the mirror, it is attached the baby pack and Jacob uses it to check and see how many mosquitoes might be biting Kalib.

The walk did not begin with the mirror shot. It began right here, on Sarah's Way.

Down Seldon we go.

Then we turned onto Tamar.

Jacob does a mosquito check. The mosquitoes have not gotten as bad as they soon will, but they are bad enough. It is okay. Kalib needs to get lots of bites, so that he builds his immunity and they don't bother him anymore.

Jacob did not agree with my philosophy and wanted me to do my own mosquito checks and brush the little creatures off of my grandson's head.

Back home, Jacob unloads Kalib from the pack.

Kalib spots the dog across the street and heads over in its direction. There are no cars coming, so Jacob let's him, but follows warily. This is one of those pictures that I think you should click on, so that you can see the dog and Kalib's face a little better.

Jacob herds Kalib back to the house, as caught in the reflection of his Tahoe.

Kalib heads for the door.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment1 Comment |
in , , , , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (1)

Wow! What brains! The first one is an awesome picture of Jacob & Kalib.

June 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSoundarya

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Alert
Comment Moderation Enabled
Your comment will not appear until it has been cleared by a website editor.

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.