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
« Review of the Kabab and Curry, part 1, preface: The drive to town, the brief visit with Kalib | Main | Flying home, part 2: Study through Window Seat 1D, Alaska Airlines Flight 52: passengers boarding in Fairbanks »
Sunday
Jan242010

Kalib is carried, sleeping; new-baby-in-waiting waits a little longer

DateSunday, January 24, 2010 at 4:45AM

Even though Margie remains in Arizona, at her sister's house which is buried under four feet of new snow, unable to get to her mother's house 45 miles away because the roads have been impassable, unable to communicate with her mother because the cell phone service is down in her village as is the power, it was a family day for me today.

I went into Anchorage and did all those things that I earlier told you I would do.

Yet, even though by my usual standards it is still fairly early, just 14 minutes after midnight, this is one of those nights when my lifestyle has caught up to me.

I am simply too tired to make a full post tonight. I can't do it. I must go to bed.

But I know that some of the Kalib adorers among you were counting on seeing him, so here he is, being carried into his parent's home in the arms of his father.

Now that you have seen him and know that he is fine, I will go to bed. I will still make a full report on the day, perhaps first thing after I get up, eat breakfast, read the paper, take a walk... including my full review of our dining experience at the Kabab and Curry - Alaska's newest Indian Restaurant.

Or I might just take a little break from it all and hold it for tomorrow.

Maybe. We will see.

Goodnight!

 

Wait! Wait! Wait!

It would not be right for me to go to bed and not provide an update on Lavina and our new-baby-in-waiting. Lavina continues on as she has been - experiencing light contractions, about an hour apart, still hoping that baby will stay put until the grandmas can get here.

But we don't know.

Baby could get serious about getting out and into the world at any time.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment7 Comments |
in , , , , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (7)

Yay!! Kalib!!! Hope that next baby hangs on til the Grandma's get there.

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMikey

Yay!! Kalib!!! *2 :)

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAsh

P.S.Sorry Mikey.. Hope you won't consider that plagiarism..

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAsh

Hope Baby waits too! Be sure to let us know, as I KNOW you will!
We're anxious too!

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered Commenteraview999

I'm glad to see Kaleb again. He's still just as cute as ever! Now I'm looking forward to seeing the new baby. BTW, we're back to warmer than usual days here in GA. Temps have been around 60. We didn't get any snow in the central part of the state where I live, so I'll have to be satisfied seeing your pics of that glorious Alaska snow.

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered Commentermajii

sleep well, all of you.

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

good to see kalib again. wonder how he'll look when he sees the new baby. and, yes, what a drag that we can no longer burn the candle at both ends and need to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. don't know about you, bill, but i actually fall asleep in my desk chair while i'm writing. i saw a very loud musical in nyc last week - fela - & i fell asleep half a dozen times despite the noise and excellence of the production!

January 24, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterruth z deming

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.