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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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Thursday
Aug062009

Margie crutches her way into the living room and watches TV

DateThursday, August 6, 2009 at 9:49PM

Concerning this blog - concerning work, recreation and life in general - I remain in "take a break" mode, even if there is no break to be had, but in the past couple of days, Margie has made big improvement and so I must report it.

Yesterday, I walked into the bedroom and was most surprised to find her standing beside the bed, supported by her crutches, having risen to that position with no help from me.

And then... not immediately but very soon... she hobbled all the way out to the living room, with me slowly walking backwards in front of her in case she should begin to fall. With my help, she sat down upon the couch and I positioned the red ottoman in front of her and helped her situate her injured leg upon it. I gave her the two remotes required to control the TV. She turned it on and began to watch.

I don't have much to do with TV these days. To watch TV feels to me like a monumental waste of time and I can hardly sit through a program. In the winter, when the nights are not only dark but dominate the day, I pick out a program or two a week to try to watch when I am home, most notably the original CSI (although I pretty much lost interest after Gil left) and on Sunday nights, it has become a family tradition to watch Desperate Housewives and I do join in, mostly for the popcorn.

And occassionally, on a dark, cold, winter night, it is wonderful to cozy up to Margie on the couch and watch a video.

But I do not believe that I have watched a single program all the way through this entire summer - until tonight. Burn Notice. I watched just so that I could sit down and be with her. It was fun.

Another program followed - something with "Royal" in the title, and that is what she is watching here. But I was TV'ed out. I shot this single frame - my only frame for the entire day - with my G10 pocket camera and then came out here and put it in this blog.

So there you have it.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment5 Comments |
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Reader Comments (5)

"Burn Notice" is a favorite in my family as well.

August 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMissSunshine

Huge improvement! I have no t.v. here because I'd sit and stare and not get a thing done.

August 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKelly

So glad that Margie is having some improvement. I've been sending best wishes. Thanks for breaking from the break to update us.

August 7, 2009 | Unregistered Commentergdwyer

Nice smile. Things are improving. Big cyberhugs for Margie!

August 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterGrandma Nancy

Am glad she is improving... speedy recovery Margie.

August 7, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkavitha

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