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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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Tuesday
Jun012010

I am experiencing technical problems here in AKP

DateTuesday, June 1, 2010 at 7:29AM

Here I am, in Anaktuvuk Pass, where the 80 degrees that everyone tells me had warmed this tiny community in the midst of the Brooks Range just the day before I arrived has yielded to wind and ice-cold rain, which is now turning to snow. This would be okay, except that Rainey and B-III had planned to wed outside, up in the mountains, with caribou and other Iñupiat foods cooking all around, and this weather is not conducive to that.

As for me, I am having technical problems between my computer and the local wireless signal. I am momentarily on a borrowed laptop, with none of my photos in it. It just may be that I will not be able to make a full-fledged, illustrated, post until I return to Wasilla, probably either late Wednesday or Thursday.

Yesterday, I went to the community Memorial Day gathering at the village cemetery. It was beautiful and there was much good food. I saw the graves of some old friends. Even though I knew they had passed on, it was a surprise and it took me back a bit to see their names written upon the varnished wooden crosses that now stand over them.

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment2 Comments |

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Reader Comments (2)

Hope you get your connection straightened out. I bought my first digital camera in preparation for going to a big family event next week. I bought the Canon S90! So I've been experimenting a little. I think mostly it will be in AUTO mode. I can see why it is so much easier to carry around than one of your pro cameras.

June 1, 2010 | Unregistered Commentermocha

Mocha - I think you will enjoy the s90. Auto can be good, but don't be afraid to experiment and ruin some pictures. Auto oftentimes doesn't know.

June 6, 2010 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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