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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
May102010

An artist finds his place on a newly painted wall; my baby shower post turns into a preview

DateMonday, May 10, 2010 at 11:59AM

I simply cannot keep up with myself. I hate to break a baby shower into two pieces, but I started editing the images for this post about an hour-and-a-half ago, I'm not even close to having made my final selection, I have much to do today and I have no more time to spend on it. 

So I decided just to post this one image of Kalib's art, hanging on the wall in the dining room of his family home. Readers will remember this wall as being white. Last week, Jacob and Lavina painted most of the upper-floor walls. After painting this wall blue, they devoted this portion of it to Kalib and his art.

I will come back tomorrow to show the shower in greater detail.

Well, I suppose that if I am going to say anything at all about a baby shower, I should at least present one image of the baby for whom the shower was thrown. This is he, Jobe, with his Auntie Melanie.

Oh, what the heck - one more image, but only because there were a number of little people there, including young David, whose mother hails from Senegal. I can't decide which picture of David I should use in my post tomorrow, so I will put this one up today and that will make the decision easier tomorrow as there will be one less photo to chose from.

David has a very beautiful sister, but I already know which picture I am going to use of her. You can see it tomorrow. She is gorgeous and very cute.

So is little Ashlyn, who you will also meet, and little Anna.

Cooper is mischievous, as you will see.

As for young Ian...

This is he. As I have mentioned the fact that Jacob and Lavina painted their walls, I think that means I had better include this picture today, just to explain the paint job a little better. You might be wondering why there is such a strong cast of green light falling upon Ian, the wall and the rug.

It is because he is standing by the open door to the newly painted bathroom.

This is the bathroom, painted in its new shade of green. When you step into it and the sun is shining, as it was on the day of the shower, it is actually much brighter than it appears here. If I did not tone down the brightness a bit, it would sear your eyes.

Plus, no computer screen that I am aware of is capable of emitting a level of green brightness to match that of this bathroom.

Caleb holds a Navajo/Apache taco - the main entree of the event - which he will soon eat.

It is probably better to think about eating bean-laden tacos when you are in a room other than the bathroom.

Okay - one more - another of baby Jobe, admiring his grandfather as he is fed by his mother's good friend, Natalee. This kid receives love from many sources.

So today I failed to put up the post on the baby shower.

Tomorrow, I hope I will post it and then we can all move on with life.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment6 Comments |
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Reader Comments (6)

Now I know what we're having for dinner! Yum!! Thanks for the great idea. PS - I LOVE that bathroom!!! I LOVE bright color!!

May 10, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMikey

As for the bathroom, it's not easy being green... ;) Even Jacob's pants have morphed into green. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpiIWMWWVco

May 10, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterKasha Knish

love the bright colors in all the rooms and with all the children. at 9 pm my time, philadelphia time, the PBS station is showing A History of Whaling on American Experience. I will do my census work paperwork while harpooning a big whale. i'll put on the ambergris as perfume to seduce my handsome boyfriend scott!

May 10, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterRuth Z Deming

Funny how the bathroom color is what sticks (Jobe and the other kiddo's cuteness notwithstanding)

I once thought it would be cool to paint my bathroom chocolate brown. It wasn't. At all.

May 10, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

I really like the robin's egg blue dining room. Tim is horrified, by the way. But he has painted one diningroom and two kitchens orange, so I'm not sure he has any room to talk.

May 11, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

oh i love the Jobe art wall

May 11, 2010 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

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