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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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Thursday
Oct202011

Jesse Sanchez: the Barrow Whaler who showed up at the championship game wearing pink

DateThursday, October 20, 2011 at 3:15PM

Jesse Sanchez of Barrow wore pink gloves onto the playing field last Saturday when the Barrow Whalers met the Nikiski Bulldogs in the state championship game.

Sophomore starter Sanchez did it to remind spectators - and anyone who happens to see this photo - that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and to encourage them to support both the battle against cancer and the women afflicted by it in any way they can.

His own mother has had two bouts with cervical cancer, so Jesse knows what the fight is all about.

So does his sister, Mariska, a Barrow cheerleader, who got into trouble for wearing a t-shirt in support of breast cancer patients emblazoned with the words, "I love boobs" to school.

As readers know, the Whalers lost that championship game.

Yet, even within that loss, they scored their little wins here and there.

Jesse's pink gloves was among those little wins.

Now, as for me, my time is so full and I have so much that feels so impossible that I must accomplish over the next four or five days that I am putting this blog on "one picture a day" mode. Don't be surprised if I miss a day or two altogether - like I did yesterday.

Once everything is out of the way, I anticipate having a brief period of time when I can go at this like it is really what I do.

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment5 Comments |
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Reader Comments (5)

Love it!!! That's my nephew, he makes me very proud. Thank you Bill!!!

October 20, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterBunna

Thank you for sharing this Bill... We are very Proud of our son Jesse and Our daughter Mariska... Barrow Whalers Played a Good Game we are very Proud of them Boys...

October 20, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSanchez Parents

what a fantastic photo! the glove is the thing. wow.

October 20, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterdahli22

Bill, I just happened on a story at HP that I normally wouldn't have really noticed.

It looks like an author named Lauren Myracle got a call like your author friend, Debby. It was what happened next that caught her off guard..

Lauren recounts what happened next ....in case Debby or you hadn't heard about the mix-up, I thought I would pass it on.

A bit ironic with her surname being Myracle. The comments to this article are interesting, as well.

How I Was Un-nominated For The National Book Award
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-myracle/lauren-myracle-national-book-awards_b_1019972.html

October 20, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterMirage

Great shot!

October 22, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterGanesh

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