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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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Saturday
Oct082011

Before the game and the landing of two whales, a fox appeared, followed by a snowy owl

DateSaturday, October 8, 2011 at 10:45PM

This is the fox, as photographed through a multi-paned, dirty window in the hallway of Barrow High School, where I had gone to meet the Barrow Whaler's football team, which on this day would face Monroe Catholic from Fairbanks - the only team that had beaten them during regular season play.

As the Barrow Whalers football team worked to pysche themselves toward the goal of "redemption" and a victory that if achieved would send them to the state championship game in Chugiak next week, Barrow whalers in boats had set out in motor boats to ply the temporarily ice-free waters of the Chukchi on the first day of the fall whaling season.

This is the owl. Some Barrow Whalers ball players standing nearby speculated that it might swoop down upon the fox, lift it high into the air and then drop it so that it might kill it and eat it, but it didn't.

I am happy to report that the Barrow Whalers football players got their redemption - they defeated Monroe Catholic, 28-14, and will be in Chugiak in one week, where I hope they make history and become the first Barrow football team to win the state championship.

The Barrow whalers plying the sea landed two bowheads - the first by the Aiken crew, who I followed in my book, Gift of the Whale, and the second by the crew of Louis Brower.

I did photograph the game and I did get some whale butchering photos, but I haven't looked at any of them yet and am saving them for the printed page.

 

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment6 Comments |
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Reader Comments (6)

great pictures..the fox picture is pretty clear for being shot through a window. We are celebrating Thanksgiving here in Canada and i'm thankful i found your wonderful blog

October 9, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Uncle, the picture looks nice, especially the owl sitting on the electric pole. I never got a glimpse of such owls, is that spotted owl? Fox is so fluffy, very beautiful.

October 9, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterGanesh

Beautiful animals. Both of 'em. BTW, I got a picture of Booker C today.

October 9, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

PS How much snow is lying on the ground in Barrow?

October 9, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

Thanks, Twain.

Nephew, these are known as snowy owls, ukpik in Iñupiaq.

Debby, not that much snow. With annual precipitation about the same as Phoenix, Barrow seldom gets huge amounts of snow. But once it falls, the snow does not melt, but can pile up in huge drifts.

Wow - Booker C. I must meet him.

October 9, 2011 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

I love the picture of the fox...beautiful. It certainly looks cold there....I guess it's coming here soon, too.

October 11, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterShoshana

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