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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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Monday
Oct042010

Yesterday, as I exited the post office; technological failures and woes

DateMonday, October 4, 2010 at 11:09AM

Despite the fact that it was Sunday, I went to the post office yesterday to check the mail as my trip to Kenai had prevented me from doing so the day before. I found nothing but an empty box - no bills, no checks, no junk ads, no political fliers.

I stepped out the door and headed back to the car, but before I reached it I saw this jet passing by above. I pulled out my pocket camera and shot three frames, including this one.

I then noticed a couple who appeared to be in their 40's, standing beside their car, grinning knowingly as they looked at me.

That's what I do, though. I take pictures - of any damn thing that catches my eye. This jet caught my eye.

As for my current situation - my Canon 5 D Mark II, the cheaper of the two cameras that the rain in Kenai put out of commission - has dried out and come back to life. I don't know if greater damage has been done and if this just might be a temporary resurrection, but for the moment it appears to be functioning properly.

I hope that it continues to do so, because I need it.

My more expensive camera - the weather-sealed, storm-proof, indestructible tank known as the Canon 1Ds Mark III - is wiped out. It is going to require a trip to the Canon Factory to put it back into action.

So, equipment wise, this is my current situation:

My very favorite lens, my 16-35, got sheared in half early last spring in a silly little accident. I have not yet been able to get it repaired. The super-wide shots that you sometimes still see on this blog have all been shot with a cheap, Tamron 14 mm. lens of marginal quality that I purchased in 2002.

My Epson Stylus R2400 Inkjet printer - the only printer that I own, broke down on me in mid-summer and I have not yet been able to replace it.

The image on the screen of my 15-inch Macbook Pro laptop vibrates and jumps up and down at a maddening pace. I took it in to the local shop, where they determined that the computer was okay but the screen had gone bad. 

It will cost anywhere from $300 to $500 to repair it.

My harddrives are all full and I need to invest in about four terabytes of harddrives for my desktop computer and two portable terabytes for my malfunctioning lap top, just to continue on and to make certain that everything is backed up.

And now this with the 1Ds-MIII and the CF card.

Maddening.

And then there is the matter of that 16 gigabyte compact flash card that was in the Ids Mark III when the rain took it down - the camera and card on which I had recorded over 95 percent of the action pictures that I took at the final game of the Barrow Whalers football team. That card is ruined. I was able to save a number of images off of it, but lost a huge amount due to file corruptions.

Yet - despite the loss of so many action images, in human terms I have what I believe to be an excellent and strong take from that final game. This is because I kept the long lens on the big, weather-sealed camera and the short lens on the 5D. I caught so much spirit, feeling and emotion with the short lens.

Now, I just need to get some harddrives before I leave to Kaktovik via Barrow tomorrow afternoon and get it all backed up.

I don't have time to blog anything but this one picture.

I have wasted too much time by writing even this much.

I have an impossible amount to accomplish between now and when I leave.

I should not be blogging at all.

But blog I will.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment3 Comments |
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Reader Comments (3)

In regards to the Canon 5 D Mark II ... I'm still using my now-almost-antique cell phone that I dropped in the salty ocean about 4 years ago. The Canon is undoubtedly a more complex creation, but I hope you have the same good fortune that I've had with my cell.

October 4, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterWhiteStone

sorry to hear about all your electronics troubles...it is maddening and unfortunately this stuff isn't inexpensive. have a good trip in spite of everything.

October 4, 2010 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Charlie's Sister, Tiffi had good service from Canon with a dunk her camera took. I believe they gave her a new one. About 4 years ago???

October 4, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterCyndy E

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