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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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« Keeping this blog alive in a holding pattern with one pic of Chukchi Sea sunset | Main | Looking back at Point Hope from across the ice »
Sunday
May012011

Point Hope: coming home from whale camp

DateSunday, May 1, 2011 at 4:42PM

Just to make it clear that this blog is still alive, i am posting just one picture today. And to make it easy to pick that picture on a laptop computer with a malfunctioning screen, I decided that I would choose the very last picture that I have taken so far today.

That was this one, shot about 2:00 AM this morning as we pulled back from the ice, intending to spend three hours in the village and then to head back out.

So I set my iPhone alarm for 4:50 AM as I went to bed at 2:50 AM, then slept very little because I did not want to somehow sleep past the appointed time and miss my ride back to the ice.

As hard as it was, I got up and headed to the house of whaling captain Rex Rock, Sr, where, at 5:00 AM, it was very quiet and no one was stirring. People started moving around about 10: AM and it was then that I learned that the sea had gotten rough and so we would be staying on land for awhile.

I ate a good breakfast with the Rocks, then returned here to the home of Jessie Frankson and Krystle Ahmaogak and their three young boys, Jessie Jr, Kuunnan and Jonathan, napped for a couple of hours, got up and ate another breakfast.

Thanks in large part to the heavy overcast, it still got close to being dark in the wee hours of this morning, but soon the sun will be in the sky 24 hours a day and there will be no more darkness at all.

In Barrow, the final, very brief sunset is May 10. I am not certain what day here - a day or two or three after that, I would guess.

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

Very cool shot - it almost made me feel the cold. Can't wait to see all the new pictures!

May 1, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterChrissyinPA

It was hard to imagine anything untill I saw this pic..and ofcourse with the other few pics u sent from iphone...sounds fun to me from here :) but I am sure you must be freeeezinggg!!! clut clut clut clut :P

May 1, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

amazing picture

May 2, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Beautiful picture!

May 2, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKathryn

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