Main Exhibit
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Fisherman gathering in the net before hauling it on deck of the trawler QUINCY on the Grand Banks in heavy seas in July, 1957. “It’s never too rough to fish,” says Skipper Jim Farrell’s brother-in-law, Don Morang.” Ruohomaa’s photographs accompanied an article by Lew Dietz: “The Toughest Bonanza in Fishing,” which was published in True, the Man’s Magazine.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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In January of 1957, Ruohomaa spent ten days on Monhegan documenting the winter lifestyle of this island community. He stayed with the Odom brothers, who ran the general store when not fishing. This image of a fisherman returning to the harbor at the end of the day demonstrates Ruohomaa’s knack for creating dramatic photographs, in this case breaking the “rule” of shooting with the sun at one’s back.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A load of redfish spill out from the cod end of the trawl net into the fish pen of the trawler QUINCY. The American Society of Magazine Photographers wrote this in its 1957 monthly Infinity magazine: “Trawlermen on the Grand Bank” for Chevrolet’s Friends in which Black Star’s Kosti Ruohomaa used natural light with dramatic artistry in an unusual picture story.” The demand for color photography in magazines increased dramatically in the late 1950s.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Tensions are high at this lobster price meeting in Rockland in 1958. Charles Beal, of Beal’s Island, makes a motion to support fund-raising projects in coastal Maine communities. The Maine Lobsterman’s Association voted unanimously to fight anti-trust charges. Like his better known photos of Maine town-hall meetings, Ruohomaa had a sixth sense in capturing a moment that could tell the story.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A fisherman poses with his catch, or perhaps bait, in 1950. Environmental portraits became one of Ruohomaa’s trademarks. This fisherman is most likely of Finnish descent; the photo was probably taken in the Cushing area.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Herring fishermen take a break from pursing up a seine to ogle at a pinup calendar. Herring or “Maine Sardines” were typically caught in weirs located near shore or seines, then transferred to a carrier for the trip to the canneries. Ruohomaa documented all aspects of this important Maine industry during his career. The smoked herring and canned sardine industries have since all but disappeared from Maine.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A young woman enjoys a mouthful at a clambake at Waterman’s Beach in South Thomaston. While the photograph makes it seem a candid moment, other frames from this roll show that Ruohomaa worked this image to get it just right.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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These photographs of the alewife operation at Homeport Fish Company in Damariscotta Mills were taken for a feature in Maine Coast Fisherman in May of 1957. Ruohomaa teamed up again with his friend and occasional writing partner, Lew Deitz for “The Alewives Are Running,” which described in words and images one of nature’s greatest shows. The photo on the left shows a diversion of the fish ladder bringing in the fish. The photo on the right shows the fish being loaded into baskets before drying and or smoking.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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These photographs of the alewife operation at Homeport Fish Company in Damariscotta Mills were taken for a feature in Maine Coast Fisherman in May of 1957. Ruohomaa teamed up again with his friend and occasional writing partner, Lew Deitz for “The Alewives Are Running,” which described in words and images one of nature’s greatest shows. The photo on the left shows a diversion of the fish ladder bringing in the fish. The photo on the right shows the fish being loaded into baskets before drying and or smoking.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Worm diggers rake the mud at low tide at Cod Cove in Wiscasset in 1958. Harvesting bloodworms to sell for bait was and is a common practice to supplement a fisherman’s income. Bloodworms and their cousin, sandworms, are found in the silty clay or mud of Maine’s extensive mud flats. The worms are so named because their blood shows through their pale skin, giving them a faint-pink color.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Fisherman George Curtis and retired fisherman William Leaman talk fishing (of course) outside of Leaman’s fish house in Owls Head in 1957.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A boy’s life in rural Maine was a favorite theme of Ruohomaa’s work. He often tapped the children of his family’s friends to use as subjects. In this tableau, Bobby Lofman and his pal George Quinn fish for brook trout in the Oyster River of West Rockport. While this work may have never been published, Lofman did grace a 1957 cover of Life Magazine for Ruohomaa’s picture essay of the Maine winter.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A boy’s life in rural Maine was a favorite theme of Ruohomaa’s work. He often tapped the children of his family’s friends to use as subjects. In this tableau, Bobby Lofman and his pal George Quinn fish for brook trout in the Oyster River of West Rockport. While this work may have never been published, Lofman did grace a 1957 cover of Life Magazine for Ruohomaa’s picture essay of the Maine winter.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A day’s work at a coastal dwelling. A man works on his chimney pipe, which has a vane that lets it swivel downwind to improve the draft. When it’s calm, it is a good time to hang out the wash, and laundry was a common sight in Ruohomaa’s photographs. The contact sheet shows that Ruohomaa worked this scene to get the various compositional components in their right place.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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This photograph of the ribs from an old shipwreck was titled “Ghost Ships of Chaleur Bay” when it appeared in Life Magazine in July of 1949. Chaleur Bay is an arm of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence located between Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada. Shooting into the rising sun with the bold forms of the ribs projecting out create a powerful abstraction that offers a haunting and mysterious interpretation of this place.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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The sun rises between two elms on a foggy Maine morning. The mood created by fog was one of Ruohomaa’s obsessions. He burned through many rolls of film in its exploration. There is a story of a raw Maine morning, wherein a stranger wanders about at the edge of the sea, two cameras slung over his shoulder. Seeing he is soaked to the bone, a local woman asks him in for coffee and questions what he is up to. His answer is simple: “I’m looking at the fog.” And with that, the stranger—Kosti–disappears back into the mist.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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A mooring diver in Rockland in 1958. Ruohomaa had some fun making this portrait, framing his subject’s face tightly and showing a variety of expressions.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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White headstones glow in the morning light standing guard over the mouth of the Machias River in Machiasport as two draggers head out to fish. This photograph was from Ruohomaa’s 1953 photo essay in Holiday Magazine in which he followed (from shore) ROGUE’S MOON, a ‘45 schooner from Cape Ann to Lubec.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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National Geographic used this photograph in its article “Maine’s Lobster Island, Monhegan” in February of 1959 with this caption: “Lord of Monhegan, a four pound lobster, shows claws that can easily break a man’s finger. Measuring the catch, the fisherman uses a brass gauge to determine the length of the heavy cradle shell. Law forbids taking ‘shorts’ and ‘jumbos.’ Plugging claws with a wooden peg prevents lobsters from maiming one another on way to market.” Ruohomaa spent ten days on Monhegan, documenting the opening of the lobster season, but, after returning, realized he had no photographs of lobsters, so he went back for this image.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Two fishermen chat in front of a fish house sided with lobster trap buoys. The axe- trimmed buoys were lighter and more compact and easier to grab than the ones made from 4×4’s, but they took longer to make. Now they are all tapered foam plastic. Ruohomaa was known to shoot primarily with a Rolleiflex and black-and- white film, but he also used a Linhoff 4”x5” and color transparency film, as is exemplified with this image.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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It’s winter or early spring, low tide; the boat is ashore, the wharf is quiet.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Aunt Carrie Maker, 92, portrayed here knitting has “been widowed twice, both husbands lobstermen. She lives with Gene Rackcliff at Wheelers Cove, Spruce Head.“ This photograph was featured in Maine Coast Fisherman in May of 1958.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Lobsterman Floyd Conant of Port Clyde and a four-legged friend pass the time in his fish house. A newspaper clipping showing a herring haul can be seen tacked to the far wall. Maine Coast Fisherman ran a regular column, “Fisherman’s Mug-up,” that featured portraits of fishermen. This photo ran in that column in May 1958.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Young Lanny Rackcliff watches his father, Alvin, examine a lobster buoy. Lanny’s father, two uncles, and grandfather all were lobstermen. Caps of this era are not today’s ubiquitous baseball-style advertising of all manner of things or just having a boat’s name on it. This photograph appeared in Maine Coast Fisherman in May 1958.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Pemaquid Light overlooks the entrance to Muscongus Bay and Johns Bay, on a cold evening. Winter, low dramatic light, and Maine’s treacherous yet beautiful coastline were all themes that Ruohomaa explored during his career. This photo was made during work on a photo essay “Winter Night” published in Life Magazine, May, 1951.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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George Curtis was a lobsterman as well as a good friend and occasional muse of Ruohomaa. In these two photos he plays the character of the “Commodore,” always donning a derby and cloak. The Commodore and other characters appeared in boating and tourism magazines like Popular Boating in 1958-1960 and poked fun at Maine’s summer tourists.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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In the summer of 1951, Ruohomaa received a call from his friend Andrew Wyeth inviting him to join in fetching an antique hearse from Loud’s Island. Ruohomaa documented the infamous trip from start to finish. In this view, sawmill operator, Ralph Cline, rows Andrew Wyeth (sporting his favored Nehru jacket) to shore from Dick Percy’s lobster boat.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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In the summer of 1951, Ruohomaa and his friend Andrew Wyeth spent the day exploring the abandoned 1700’s house of Revolutionary figure Christian Hoffsees in South Waldoboro. The two spent the day discovering the rooms, spaces, memories, and mysteries of a long-abandoned place. Kosti recalled that Andrew Wyeth left with sketches and notes “to last him a year’s painting.”
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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George Curtis was a lobsterman as well as a good friend and occasional muse of Ruohomaa. In these two photos he plays the character of the “Commodore,” always donning a derby and cloak. The Commodore and other characters appeared in boating and tourism magazines like Popular Boating in 1958-1960 and poked fun at Maine’s summer tourists.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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Pemaquid Light overlooks the entrance to Muscongus Bay and Johns Bay, on a cold evening. Winter, low dramatic light, and Maine’s treacherous yet beautiful coastline were all themes that Ruohomaa explored during his career. This photo was made during work on a photo essay “Winter Night” published in Life Magazine, May, 1951.
Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
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