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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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Friday
Feb042011

Eagle perched in tree at dusk, just up Shrock Road from the Little Su; two kids pose for someone else

DateFriday, February 4, 2011 at 1:03PM

The sun had gone down, darkness was setting in and I was sipping coffee as I drove the Ford Escape down Shrock Road toward the Little Susistna River. Shoshana had served me that coffee. She always looks nice but today she looked exceptionally so and I thought that I should shoot a few more "Young Writer Studies" of her as she prepared my coffee, but I couldn't because I had forgotten my camera.

Then I came upon this bald eagle, perched in this tree.

"Damnit!" I swore. "Here I am, with no camera! I could drive back home and get my camera, but the eagle will surely be gone by the time I get back!"

But sometimes an eagle will sit still in a tree for a very long time, so I decided I would give it a try. I was somewhere between three and four miles from the house. I turned the car around, raced back and got my camera.

The eagle was still there when I got back.

There wasn't much light left.

I took the picture anyway.

"Thank you, Bill," the eagle said.

"You're welcome, Eagle," I said.

Actually, no such exchange took place.

The eagle did not care. The eagle was completely indifferent to the fact.

They say that eagles have the sharpest eyes of anybody.

Yet, this eagle will never look at this photo.

If by chance the eagle did see this photo, the eagle would not care about it at all.

The eagle would rather see a fish.

The eagle would rather that the eagle be the last thing that the fish was ever aware of.

Eagles have their priorities, and admiring photographs of themselves are not among those priorities.

Somebody came driving along in a pickup.

Maybe the driver saw the eagle, maybe not.

I suspect that the driver did see the eagle.

Even though it was getting dark, the eagle was kind of hard to miss.

 

And this from India:

Through the window of our taxi, I spot two kids posing for someone else as we drive by.

 

View images as slides

 

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

Sure do wish you would write books for kids! Think about it -- you are a natural, wonderful photos, great thoughtful commentary with a bit of whimsy, and little ones LOVE you, and all the things you love too..... eagles, ravens, airplanes, cats, dogs, whales, walks finding who knows what, interesting people, places, and things!

February 4, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterGrandma Nancy

oh! What Grandma Nancy said!
Bill, you could do a WONDERFUL children's picture book.
I'll buy the first one!

got two possible book titles for you to get you going:
"Ravens for Sandy" or "Chooo'weet!"

I think she'd like that a lot.
And you too.

February 4, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterjustafarmer

Do my eyes deceive me? In your topmost photo, it almost looks like the tree is budding. I'd love to learn more about how your Springtimes 'open up'. Is there a photographer in the house? :-)

February 4, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterHeidi3

I love the two title justafarmer suggested above! :))) Choo Cuteee!!

February 6, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

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