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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
Jul112010

An extremely lazy day - Chicago sleeps upon my tummy as I crash, lay about and watch TV with Margie

DateSunday, July 11, 2010 at 11:01AM

This is the only picture that I took all day Saturday and I took it late at night as I lay upon the couch, watching TV, my head resting against Margie, Chicago sleeping upon my tummy.

It was an extremely lazy day and I did nothing worth mentioning, nor did I have a single intelligent thought worth passing on.

Lisa got lazy, too. She did not come out as she had intended. We did not climb Lazy Mountain as she had committed me to. She said it was because it was raining hard at her place, but it was not raining here nor upon Lazy Mountain.

We were all just lazy.

Too lazy to climb Lazy Mountain.

 

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AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment7 Comments |
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Reader Comments (7)

It sound like you had a blissful day. It hit 114 in my area, so, I was pretty lazy, too! (grin)

July 11, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMirage

Curious on how the kitteh's are reacting to Royce being gone...

July 11, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

Awwww Chicago. She must still miss Royce and need some love. We are finally down into the 80s and it feels much better. You deserve a lazy day or two.

July 11, 2010 | Unregistered Commentermovha

Definitely a lazy day here in Denver…I finally got enough energy to get a frozen treat at Dairy Queen…yum!
You have a great evening!

July 11, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterrgden32

sounds good to me

July 11, 2010 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Mirage - I hope you had air-conditioning!

Michelle - It remains pretty hard on Chicago. She wants to be with me all the time now, day and night. The problem is, she doesn't get along with Pistol-Yero at all, and he likes to hang with me, too.

Mocha - I try my best to give it to her. I was lazy today, too. I don't seem to be recovering. It cooled off here today, too - down into the 50's.

rgden - Oh, man! Dairy Queen! I love the place. Two nights ago I bought a banana split there. It was heaven.

July 11, 2010 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

Thanks, Twain. Your comment accidently got left behind in the filter for awhile. Sorry about that.

July 12, 2010 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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