The primary (and best) reason to digitize museum collections is to share them with the public on the web. PMM’s photo archives staff has been hard at work for the past year getting to know Kosti Ruohomaa’s photographs through this process. Since he worked under the umbrella of a photo agency for most of his life (Black Star Publishing in Manhattan), the collection is most meaningfully grouped by his professional assignments: those he was given and those he conceived himself and pitched to them. It’s interesting to observe that many of the “self-assignments” were studies of particular aesthetic and cultural themes which the photographer circled back to repeatedly throughout his career.
Beginning in January of 2021, we’ll use this page to showcase a few new assignments each month. Please check back here to further explore the captivating work of this iconic Maine talent. Click on any of the thumbnails below to open that group of images in our online database.
Children in Barn
Children in BarnKosti Ruohomaa made several photo series all illustrating the fun children have in the countryside. In this series from 1950, Kosti took photos of children playing in the barn on the Ruohomaa family farm on Dodge Mountain. The barn was built by Kosti’s father Selim Ruohomaa. Kosti writes, “The kids are all from Rockville, Maine and the barn was ours.” The children include Anne Ingraham, Robert Monden, Nancy Lofman, Bobby Garrison, "Jock" Lofman, and Laurie Monden. They enjoy...
Maritime Provinces
Maritime ProvincesKosti Ruohomaa made trips to Eastern Canada to take photos for over a decade. By 1950, “Ruohomaa would be shooting major assignments in the Canadian Maritimes for the Toronto Star.” (152) “A last long-distance trip to the Canadian Maritimes began in the summer of 1960. Ruohomaa traveled with coauthor Lew Dietz on this ten-day Black Star assignment for the Toronto Star Weekly. On the way, the two stopped at Princeton and Grand Lake Stream, Maine, photographing outdoor sporting...
Boys’ Busy Saturday
Boys' Busy SaturdayGeorge Winslow and George Starr, both nine years old in 1949, often spent Saturday together in the countryside near their homes in West Rockport. Kosti Ruohomaa joined them for a day one Saturday in January of 1949. Kosti writes that they “get together every Saturday and take off for the country side– spending their time exploring, hiking, skiing, etc.” He estimates they travel a good 10-15 miles throughout their day. They played games, threw snowballs, climbed trees, and...
Standard Packaging
Standard PackagingIn November of 1959, Kosti visited Eastern Fine Paper and Pulp, a division of the Standard Packaging Corporation. The large factory in Bangor, Maine manufactured paper, and Kosti followed the whole process, documenting each step, from workers moving whole pulp logs, to workers inspecting, cutting, and wrapping the final reams of paper. The Eastern Corporation began as a sawmill in Brewer, Maine, developing a pulp mill in 1889 in order to use the waste from the sawmill. By...
Dawn
Dawn“Kosti Ruohomaa sought out various light effects of weather and time of day to create mood and atmosphere in his photographs. In this series [shot in downeast Maine], he captures dramatic skies, lone early-morning workers, and the distinctive low, slanting light in the fleeting minutes of dawn.” Deanna Bonner-Ganter, Kosti Ruohomaa: The Photographer-Poet
Winter on a Maine Farm
Winter on a Maine FarmIn the winter of 1953, Kosti was sent to Bingham, Maine on assignment for International Harvester. The International Harvester Company was a manufacturer of farm equipment and tractors from 1902-1986 and Cecil Laweryson used International Harvester equipment extensively on his farm. Kosti wrote a summary and captions for his photographs. “Cecil O. Laweryson of Bingham, Maine is what can be considered an energetic, intelligent, young progressive farmer and lumber operator....
Farmers’ Almanac
Farmers' AlmanacKosti Ruohomaa had an ongoing interest in links to the past. Living in an era when the wider culture was focused on modernity and progress, Ruohomaa liked to use his photographs to capture the old and the traditional. This interest took many forms; in this series, Kosti takes photos illustrating quotes from the Old Farmer's Almanac, including images of the vagaries of weather, farmers reading the almanac, and spring tasks on Lewis Malcolm Twyman's Rapidan, Virginia, farm. 10...
Lobster Eating Contest
Lobster Eating ContestAround 1950, Ruohomaa photographed a number of adolescent contestants in a lobster eating contest at the July Lobster Festival in Rockland. The winner, Arthur Doherty, ate his lobster in just 7½ minutes. As part of the same series, he captured family and friends—notably his young cousin Bobby Lofman and his Rockville neighbor, farmer Stanley Powell—engaged in the same messy and delectable task. Ruohomaa enjoyed the process of highlighting this Maine culinary and cultural...
Maine School Boy
Maine School BoyIn or about the winter of 1947, Ruohomaa was inspired during a visit home to Dodge Mountain to spend a day taking pictures at a one room schoolhouse in the tiny town of Rockville, not far away. There, Ruohomaa returned to an experience close to his own heart — his time, more than 25 years earlier, attending the one-room Benner School near his home. In Rockville, he chronicled the mixed-age youngsters' school day, including the solo trek home of one of the younger ones, and...
The Commodore
The CommodoreGeorge Curtis (1921-1995) grew up in Massachusetts, and later lived for many years in Owls Head, Maine. He was a pilot, fisherman, and sculptor. He and Kosti Ruohomaa were good friends and collaborated on a number of projects. Kosti flew with George to take aerial photos of Dodge Mountain and of fishermen in Penobscot Bay. George Curtis created a humorous persona he called “The Commodore,” dressing in a Derby hat and wearing a cape. Kosti took several series of photos of George...