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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
Aug282009

I respond to an angry complaint about my blog from down in the Navajo Nation - kid scoots across the Little Su - German Shepherd looks at me

DateFriday, August 28, 2009 at 1:21AM

As I slowly crossed over the Little Susitna River on the Schrock Road bridge during this afternoon's coffee break, this kid scooted across in the opposite direction.

This evening, word reached me that hordes of people living in the Navajo Nation down in Arizona are complaining furiously that Kalib has not been on the blog for four full days.

So for all you Dine' who love Kalib, here he is, making a drum stick. This is Step one - eat the corn off the cob.

Step 2 - Belch loudly, then bring your hand to your mouth and say, "oops, pardon me!" Kalib has always been very mannerdly.

Step 3 - Now you have a drumstick, so bang it on the top of your drum, which you can also use as a table.

I hope this takes care of the problem and that nobody down there in the Navajo Nation is mad at me anymore.

Today, I saw this German Shepherd looking at me. I would have given him a dog biscuit, but I didn't have one.

 

Now I am faced with a terrible dilemma. Senator Lisa Murkowski is holding a town hall meeting on health care at 10:00 AM Friday, right here in Wasilla, Alaska. And Jacob and Lavina are taking the day off and it is kid's day at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer so they are taking Kalib.

I cannot take the time to go to both.

Stay tuned - see what I decide to do: go hang out with Senator Murkowski or follow Kalib around.

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment4 Comments |
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Reader Comments (4)

Good Morning! I love this blog and so happy to see Kalib. Good luck with that tough decision. Both very important endeavors.

August 28, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLynn D

Come to the fair. We will be there!

August 28, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSuzy (=^..^=)

Go to Murkowski's meeting. We need some folks there who are for health care reform, so the yellers and shouters don't give the impression that everyone agrees with them.

August 28, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOmegaMom

Well, you can see what happened. I chose the fair and wound up at neither.

August 29, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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