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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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Saturday
Jul162011

Warm sunshine, two boys, a cat, an uncle and a gramma

DateSaturday, July 16, 2011 at 1:02PM

This is from almost right now - just shot these and then came in to put up a lazy blog entry. Lazy, because I slept in very late this morning and although I have had breakfast and coffee, I still feel groggy, plus the sun is shining, it is warm and the grandsons are here to spend the weekend with us.

I have much work to do - a magazine to be made press ready by Wednesday, thousands of pictures to edit and place for the next magazine after - and had been planning to work hard all through the weekend. Right now, I don't feel like it. I feel like all I want to do is to hang out with the grandkids and the cats and be lazy.

This picture really needs to be bigger to be grasped. That's why I make the slideshow, so readers can see bigger copies of the pictures, but the Squarespace slideshow setup is pretty tedious for the viewer, so, as I am only posting two pictures today, I also set these up in the "click and view" method, which, in Squarespace, is a very tedious process for the blogger, but as I only have two pictures today the tedium will not be that terrible. 

Click on the image and you will see a larger copy.

The grandkids and the good black cat, Jimmy.

 

Slideshow view


AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment6 Comments |
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Reader Comments (6)

I like the click on individual pictues option. They appear larger than on the "slide show" format. I've been hot for two days now!

July 16, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterCyndy E

looks like a great day

July 17, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

The boys are getting so big! I think it's time for more babies.

PS I also like the click and view.

July 17, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterManxMamma

The first picture must be viewed in the full size! It's like 3 smaller masterpieces in one! Especially of Margie. I know she isn't all that keen on having her picture taken, but just recalling the picture you've posted before of her as a young woman, she is still quite a beautiful woman.

July 17, 2011 | Unregistered Commentermocha

I just like seeing your family, and what you're up to. I like knowing there's folks like you out there!

July 17, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

Two days until your return! We can't wait.

September 13, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterManxMamma

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