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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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« Melanie and I climb the Twin Peaks trail, where I find the July 4 photo of freedom, which I share with you on behalf of a certain civilian: Part 3 of 4 | Main | I seek a July 4 photo of American freedom for a civilian mass audience of Greece: Part 1 of 4: Breakfast at Abby's »
Tuesday
Jul052011

I seek a July 4 photo of American freedom for a civilian-mass audience* of Greece: Part 2 of 4: The Wasilla parade

DateTuesday, July 5, 2011 at 2:25PM

Note: Sometimes strange and unintended things happen when publishing online. I posted this about three hours ago and from my data I know it had some visits. Then, without me ever unposting it, it came unposted. So now I repost it. (5:17 PM, July 5, 2011)

As it happened, I think I took my favorite parade picture after the parade - when I was in Melanie's and she was driving us toward the Chugach, where we would take a hike up the Twin Peak's Trail. As we passed through the main part of Wasilla, these kids came rolling by, going in the opposite direction.

I had not seen them in the parade, as we left early. I needed to meet Melanie and one poor grandmother was exhausted from trying to keep two rambunctious little boys safe and secure while her husband chased marchers and floats around.

Although you see only one picture here, this is a 23 picture post. It's just that I do not have time to include the other 22 here, especially considering that I still have two Fourth of July posts to go.

So, to see the other 22, you must go to the slide show. There you will find many flags, a couple of cute kids and dogs, soldiers decked out in combat gear, boy scouts, various politicians in search of votes, pretty girls dancing and cartwheeling in the street, people on motorcycles and horse, children waving at a hearse and things of that nature.

Among the politicians will be one dressed in red, one hand held up in waving gesture, a Vietnam veteran hat on his head. This is Verne Rupright, Wasilla's current mayor now campaigning for reelection. I post neither for or against him, but as a couple of his political competitors are identified by signs carried in their parade entourages, I figured it only fair to point out that this is the man they seek to beat.

*My friend, a civilian-mass audience has let me know via a comment that he does not want me to find a photo just for him, but to just go about things as normal, giving him no special consideration and he will keep coming back.

One must respect such a request, yet I cannot change the fact that as I shot yesterday's take, I kept wondering when a particular photo might appear. It did appear and when I get to it, I will let you know but I will not say it is just for Civi, but rather is for everybody and I just happened to be thinking of a civilian-mass audience when I shot it.

I did not take that shot at the parade, although I did take a number of decent Wasilla Fourth of July photos.

 

23 image slide show of Wasilla's July 4 parade

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment2 Comments |
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Reader Comments (2)

Well, now. See, this is why *you* are a photographer, and *I* take snapshots. Those are awesome pics, Bill. Just beautiful. They capture the spirit of that parade so beautifully.

July 6, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterOmegaMom

THANK YOU FROSTFROG...

simply thank you

all my respect to you,your family and to my people
up there in Wasilla ...

we are all civilians afterall:)))

July 16, 2011 | Unregistered Commentera civilian-mass audience

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