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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
Oct252011

Still trying to figure this new one out...

DateTuesday, October 25, 2011 at 10:58AM

Click to enlarge.

Here you see an "old" picture of a still pretty new Jobe on the refrigerator and a new one of him sitting on the coffee table, with baby Lynxton lying at his side. At the time of the refrigerator picture, Jobe was extremely happy and comfortable with his place in the chain. He was the little one, the cutest person in any room that he entered, and he got all the attention that he could possibly want.

Now, attention that was once his has been diverted to baby Lynxton, who has a great need for that attention. Since Lynxton's birth, Margie has spent a considerable amount of time in Anchorage helping Lavina and Jake care for all three siblings and on weekends, we have been bringing Jobe home with us to make it a little easier at the Anchorage household.

Kalib has been staying put on weekends, because he has proven to be a good little helper in the care of Lynxton.

But poor Jobe has been feeling a bit displaced.

So this past weekend, we did it the opposite. Kalib spent the weekend with us and Jobe alone with his parents and Lynxton, so that he could get some special parental attention and bond more deeply with little brother. One day, Jacob took a long walk through the park with Jobe running about in front of, behind and beside him. Lynxton was strapped to his dad's torso in a baby carrier. All through the walk, Dad snapped iPhone images and then texted them to us.

Jobe was having a great time. He was smiling, laughing, figuring out how to make his way through downed trees. Lynxton slept through it all.

The time finally came when they had to come out here, pick Kalib up and take him back to Anchorage.

I think Jobe is adjusting to the idea of a new little brother, but he hasn't totally figured it out or come to terms, yet.

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment4 Comments |
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Reader Comments (4)

not easy being the middle child, but i'm sure he'll figure it out :)

October 25, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

He will always get all the attention from me... my foreva favourite of da gang!

October 25, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

I cannot believe how big Jobe has gotten! Seems like only yesterday we were seeing pictures of him in his cradleboard.

Time flies!

October 25, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAkMom

Great picture.. he'll figure it out, how could he not with such loving grand/parents!

October 25, 2011 | Unregistered Commentereva

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