Top
A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

All photos and text © Bill Hess, unless otherwise noted 
All support is appreciated
Bill Hess's other sites
Search
Navigation
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.

Blog archive
Blog arhive - page view
« Snook takes us upriver from Fort Yukon to Circle; Fat Cat comes along but does not accompany us on the drive to Fairbanks | Main | Boy and Girl fiddle dance at the Gwich'in Gathering »
Saturday
Jul242010

"Fat Cat" of Fort Yukon

DateSaturday, July 24, 2010 at 3:35PM

I have been debating what I should put up for today's post: yesterday's picnic outing on the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers with the Gwich'in elders and their guests, pulling salmon out of a fish wheel, cutting salmon, jig dancing, talking stick discussions; people from Old Crow, Yukon Territory, packing up their boats, making their goodbyes and then heading out onto the river to begin their 265 mile boat-ride home.

Instead, I decided to post this image of Fat Cat.

I made this decision for very practical reasons. In less than half an hour, I will get back into the boat with Snook and once again zip upriver to his fish wheel. This is the very last photo that I took on the disk that I used to record my take of this morning and early afternoon, so I just went straight to it with no searching or editing.

Plus, I like cats. I always feel that I have accomplished something significant and worthwhile when I photograph a cat and put it on my blog.

And, it looks like Fat Cat and I will be boat mates tomorrow, so I should really introduce him now.

That will be exciting. Except for the fact that I am having a wonderful time already, I can hardly wait.

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment4 Comments |
in , , , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (4)

what great looking cat...enjoy the trip

July 25, 2010 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Fat Cat is looking real cute! I hope he still has some good pets left after you got to visit his fuffz! I mean to say I hope he did not get "overpet".

July 25, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterCharlie

Fat cat looks as if he is used to running the show. Maybe his name should be Top Cat. Oh. For some reason a whole 'nuther cat pops into my mind.

July 25, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

Fat Cat is beautiful, but definitely too fat. Have fun fishing.

July 26, 2010 | Unregistered Commentermocha

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Alert
Comment Moderation Enabled
Your comment will not appear until it has been cleared by a website editor.

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.