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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
May272011

The boys come out for the weekend, Muzzy is shorn; the landing in Point Hope; the unsure takeoff

DateFriday, May 27, 2011 at 12:37PM

The boys came out this morning. They are going to spend the weekend with us so that their parents can work on their house.

It was their mom who brought them. She brought Muzzy, too. Muzzy had been to the dog groomers and now had a bit of the poodle look. Lavina and Muzzy couldn't stay, because Lavina had to get to work. So she opened the back door to her car and Muzzy jumped in.

He jumped right back out. So she had him jump in again. I think Muzzy enjoys making multiple jumps into the car.

And yes, my recent Arctic series is still in the works, still coming. To prove it, here is a picture that I took exactly one month ago today, right after we landed in Point Hope.

Anyway, the editing is going very slowly, because I don't have much time for it. Also, it just dawned on me that this is a holiday weekend and so my readership will be down - especially if the weather stays as beautiful, sweet and magnificent as it is right now. I will not bother to post the series until the holiday has passed and sunburnt readers come straggling back.

Perhaps I drive some readers nuts with my ever-shifting plans and frequent delays, many of which I just let slip unseen into the past as the present takes over.

Look at this way - you are getting to observe an experiment being conducted by a photographer/writer of at least some talent who has spent the past 35 years making a living in certain ways that he sees coming to an end. These ways of making a living have not ended for him yet, but the end is swiftly coming and it will soon be over and archived.

So he is looking for a way to both survive and create in the new reality that is ever shifting in front of him, dominated by bright, young, energetic and creative talent who understand current trends and digital code much better than he does.

This blog is not the vehicle that will allow him to truly survive in the looming new times, but it is a part of getting there, a part that he clings to as he struggles to find the solution, to take the next step, knowing just what he wants to do but not yet how to make it happen.

Will he succeed? Or will he fail?

I bet on success.

But it is a bet, a gamble, the outcome greatly in question.

So keep coming back, keep watching. Take a front-row seat and watch this spectacle unfold. In time, the answer will be clear.

 

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AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment9 Comments |
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Reader Comments (9)

Have a great weekend with the boys - can't believe Jobe is a total mobile unit wielding - is that a golf club?

May 27, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPat in MA

love seeing the boys and Muzzy...Jobe looks so grown up in his sneakers...they grow up way to fast

May 27, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

We'll always be back Bill :)

May 27, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAsh

The answer is clear..Success!! :) For me my Uncle is always Successful!

May 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

Still coming back. Still watching, reading, enjoying, and definitely betting on your success.

So glad that the boys are back. I do have one complaint. They, like my grandkids, are growing up too darn fast. Adorable though, as is Muzzy. You too! =)

May 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKat

I see nothing but blue skys for you and yours. Look at Jobe in the sneakers and walking! He has grown so.

May 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKathryn

A blog can be and is very different than a finished book or body of work.
Yours is a window into what makes the finished work- a real life with wonderful grand boy and other family "distractions" , events which touch your life as well as inspire your camera eye...
Bill, I'm glad you are a mere mortal who is swayed and buffeted by everyday life like the rest of us . The glimpse of the ineffable which some of your photos provide is all the more precious because an everyday person captured it.
We can feel it, touch it, enjoy it because it is accessible... :-)

May 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAlaska Pi

we aren't going anywhere.
I love Muzzy's crazy tail!

May 28, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterRocksee

The weekend is almost over but, Pat, I can tell you - it has been great. A bit challenging at times, because those little ones can run older ones ragged - but great. Yes, that is a toy golf club.

twain - yes, I am a bit stunned at how grown up Jobe keeps looking.

Ash - it always makes me glad to see your name here.

Thank you, Niece. Your confidence helps me a lot.

Kat - I agree - up to the Muzzy part.

Kathryn - the skies have sure been blue the last few days. Yes, he has!

Thank you, Alaska Pi.

Rocksee - Muzzy is crazy from nose to tail.

May 29, 2011 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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