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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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« One King Island Kivgiq, one Jobe-Rex | Main | Paralysis »
Thursday
Mar172011

One Kivgiq and three Jobes

DateThursday, March 17, 2011 at 12:57PM

I can just see it in the face of young Georgia Fischer, of Barrow's Nuvugmiut Dancers: "hey Bill, where are all those Kivgiq pictures?"

One more day... one more day... I will never be able to find the time to put up the massive, multi-faceted, 149-part spread that I had pictured in my head, but I will put up a broad sampling.

I think I will do it all in slideshows, with hardly any words, because I can get many more pictures up in the same time period if I limit it to slideshows.

BTW: congratulations to the Point Hope boys basketball team, who last night won the Alaska 2A state championship for the third year in a row when they defeated Klawock.

I wish that I could have been there, but I couldn't. 

The Barrow teams enter their playoffs today. I can't go to town today, either, but I will get there before the tournament ends.

Yesterday was also Charlie's birthday. I'm sorry that I missed that as well.

Yesterday at day care, Jobe came down with a bad eye infection and had to be sent home. So now he is here, as he cannot return to daycare until he is all better and he needs a place to stay and be cared for while his parents go to work.

He is not quite as chipper as normal, but his overall mood remains positive - especially when he sees his grandpa.

Margie, Jobe and some kid on TV.

From the arms of his grandma, Jobe observes the return of his Uncle Caleb.

And this must do it for now.

 

View images as slides

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment3 Comments |
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Reader Comments (3)

can never go wrong with pictures of children

March 17, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

dig those gorgeous boots...and that hand-made wooden stool jobe's leanin on.

March 17, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterRuth Deming

Aww, well give him hugs and smooches from us...
I was missing him so much last night that I didn't really sleep well. I thought of calling but it was 2am.
I know he's super loved there though. :)

March 17, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterLavina~mom of the grandsons

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