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
« Finally, last Sunday with kids and grandkids, abruptly remembered; jail house romance wrongly credited, near miss | Main | Knocked down by bugs in the throat and computer »
Tuesday
Jan182011

Charlie: Two studies; bubbles in the Indian wind

DateTuesday, January 18, 2011 at 1:44PM

Those who visited this blog yesterday know that I posted only the first image that I shot from a day that was spent with Kalib, Jobe, Lisa, Melanie, Charlie, Caleb and Margie. Since then, I have been debating with myself as to whether or not I should go ahead and post a series of photos from that day or just move on to other topics - as I do have many items backing up, including Junipurr's scary fight for life and a Metro Cafe event where I found myself warmly engulfed by a horde of beautiful women.

I decided to post and I have now spent at least an hour-and-a-half preparing the photos for that post, but I can't afford to spend anymore time at it.

So, I will save it all for tomorrow, except for these two academic studies of Charlie:

Charlie Study, #3982: Charlie sitting on a chair, caught by window light

Charlie Study, #67692: Charlie, caught by headlights, as he prepares to drive from Wasilla to Anchorage

 

But I must also include one from India:

After we passed the elephants, Anil and Melanie made bubbles in the wind.

 

View images as slides


AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment5 Comments |
in , , , , , , ,

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (5)

Ah Yes, the man with the international beard........most academic.

January 18, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterMGSoCal

Lovely! Charlie & Melanie is looking great!

January 19, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterGane

gorgeous, gorgeous portraits. I long to find someone who could take some of me and make me look that illuminated and entirely myself. Wonderful!

January 20, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterD

Charlie looks like his Maternal G.G.G. Grandpa in these photos. I'll try to copy and send you one from a 1800's oval frame. ;)

January 20, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterCyndy E

MgSoCal - Academic shots of a studious mind.

Gane - Yep. Thanks.

D - thank you. And probably there is a photographer near you who could do it.

Cyndy - I look forward to that. I hope he has a beard.

January 20, 2011 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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.