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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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Wednesday
Mar022011

Four studies of the young writer, Shoshana; tulip for an ill lady

DateWednesday, March 2, 2011 at 11:19AM

Truly, I must keep it brief today, so I begin with:

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, # 3472: The young writer hands a pen to a customer so that he can sign his credit card in order to pay for his coffee.

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, # 2743: The young writer pours cream into a cup in preparation to make my Americano.

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, # 4732: Shoshana in black and white.

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, # 4273: The young writer works her way through a crowd of gold miners as they study gold mining equipment online via a laptop computer.

Through the Metro window study, #8222: Carmen, who just had a birthday, learns that my Margie is ill and feeling terrible. Carmen gives me a red tulip and tiny white flower to take to her.

Margie with her tulip and tiny white flower after putting them in a vase with water.

 

View images as slide show

 

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment8 Comments |
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Reader Comments (8)

Pretty tulip! I hope Margie's feeling better very soon!

March 2, 2011 | Unregistered Commentermocha

i love that blast pictures...hope Margie feels better soon

March 2, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain

Very best wishes for Margie!!!

March 2, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAlaska Pi

I am so sorry Margie is ill. I do hope she is better soon!

March 2, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKathryn

My love to Aunt Margie...

March 2, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

get well soon margie!!

March 3, 2011 | Unregistered Commentergloria

Frostfrog...
Enjoying your blog! The latest post is just so simply... so, so, so, so, so, beautiful!
Wonderful!!l
See you round Burn :)

March 3, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPaul

I have been very bad about keeping up with addressing comments. I now start again:

Mocha, Twain, Alaska Pi, Kathryn, dear Niece Suji and gloria: Thank you. I showed Margie all of your comments and she was grateful. Today, she is improving. Unfortunately, I seem to have it now myself, but it is not as hard on me as it has been on her. She is diabetic and what can be a mere annoyance and discomfort for me can be very hard for mer.

Paul: Thanks! I will hop over to burn and see what is happening there. Too much to do, though, to contribute much, if anything, to the discussion.

March 3, 2011 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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