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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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Sunday
Apr182010

We take Jobe home, where he is eagerly greeted by his lonely family; Misty and Kennedy give me a Kivgiq video

DateSunday, April 18, 2010 at 1:13PM

It was time to take Jobe back to Anchorage and to his parents, but he was fast asleep in his cradleboard. Margie began to untie him, so that she could take him out, but she did not want to wake him.

Very gently, she picked him up to transfer him to his car seat. He snoozed on.

And then she buckled him in. He slept through it all. He did not stir.

And when his mother came dashing out the door to meet us at the car to retrieve the baby whose first night of absence from her had left her so miserable, she found him just as he had been when Margie had buckled him in one hour earlier: fast asleep, but with a smile upon his face.

Mother and baby, in the house, reunited.

Father and baby, reunited. It had been a long night and day for everybody there.

Even Kalib wanted to hold his baby brother, who had been gone for so long.

Misty Nayakik of Wainwright performs Iñupiaq motion dances in a style of great beauty and grace. She is one of those performers who always draws my lens straight toward her. Until last year she had not missed a Kivgiq in 20 years, but last year she could not go.

Recently, she got a copy of the video made of the 2009 Kivgiq. When she and Kennedy Ahmaogak watched it, they came to the part where Isaac Killigvuk gave me a gift and then brought me out of my shyness and onto the floor without my cameras, to dance with him.

When they saw me dancing, she and Kennedy wanted me to have a copy. Last week, she sent me a message to tell me that they were coming to Anchorage and she was going to bring a copy of the DVD to me.

After we left Jobe with his parents and brother, Margie and I headed over to Residence in where they are staying. As we walked from the car to the door we saw Kennedy, Misty and one-year old daughter Adina waiting for us.

Thank you, Misty, Adina and Kennedy. I will treasure this video always.

 

Saturday evening, I received a text message from my youngest son Rex, who had joined in a 200 km bike ride on the Kenai Peninsula: "132 miles on my bicycle completed in about ten hours and 45 minutes!"

Melanie drove along to provide support.

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

Loved today's photos, Bill -- and also the link to photos of the Kivgiq dancers. They are SO BEAUTIFUL! Too bad you cannot share the video of the dancing with us.....

April 18, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterGrandma Nancy

YW, OMG I notice my healing frostbite. Was good to see you and good to finally meet your wife. To tell you the truth, from your comment about your dancing, it was not pitiful at all! That was good dancing, must have made everyone happy to finally see you on the floor dancing.

April 18, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMisty

great picture...love all the children

April 19, 2010 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

I love Jobe's mysterious little smile. Even asleep, a baby registers his mama's voice, I think.

April 19, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

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