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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
Feb222010

I walk to Metro Cafe and take a few shots inside

DateMonday, February 22, 2010 at 4:00AM

Margie took the car and drove to Anchorage to see baby Jobe today, so I did not take my walk until 3:30. Then I headed toward Metro Cafe. As I walked through the melt on the bike and pedestrian trail that is closed to motorized vehicles, I had to step into the slush to let this guy pass.

There is a snowmachine and four-wheeler trail on the other side of the road.

On the other hand, I do have to admit that when the snow falls deep and then the snowmachines illegally come and pack down a path, it is kind of nice.

Down below, a bicycle rider chose the hazards of narrow Lucille Street over the slush of the bike trail.

Remember the cute kids who posed for a through the window study at Metro? I found one of them, Jennifer, left, plus two that were not there that day, playing in a puddle. I was walking in a big hurry so I did not stop to talk and ask questions, like, "hey, you, two! What are your names?" I just took the picture and moved on. The temperature was about 40 degrees, maybe 41 or 42.

When will we get back to winter?

As I am posting this Friday night, it is possible that by Monday, the day this post appears, we will be back into winter, but, somehow, I don't think so.

This is Melissa. She comes to Metro Cafe just about every day. "I look intense," she said, when I showed her the picture.

And this is Joshua, who planned to go church after leaving Metro.

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

Okay. You've done it now. I need a cup of good coffee from the Metro. I'm heading out right now. Tell Carmen to have my cup waiting. I want a vanilla cappuccino, lots of foam, no fat milk, double shot of caffeine. Okay? Oh. Make it a large.

February 22, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

I'm with Debby. Coffee, please! Send that 40-degree stuff down here. I'm ready. Our great-grandsons used a garden shovel to dig loose hard, crusty snow from a front sidewalk. It was tough work. Then we played scrabble.

February 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterWhiteStone

Yesterday I was thinking about Royce. Hope he's doing ok.

February 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

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