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.
Kosti Assignments
Moss Picker
As if Ruohomaa was a staff reporter for a local paper, he thoroughly mined the neighborhoods and towns near his home […] Read More »
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Chinook Dogs
With only 800 registered worldwide in 2013 , Chinooks are a rare breed of sled dog known for their intelligence and […] Read More »
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School Party
At the one room school which served the kids living in Rockville, Maine, Kosti dropped in on a lively party—apparently marking […] Read More »
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Station Agent
70 years ago this month, Ruohomaa drove a short distance down the coast while visiting his parents in Rockville, Maine to […] Read More »
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Dr. Puharich
Around the time he renegotiated his contract with Black Star in the mid-1950s, Ruohomaa gained access to an unusual research laboratory […] Read More »
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Sardine Seining
In late 1956, Kosti Ruohomaa renegotiated his contract with Black Star, giving up a weekly salary for freedom to work on […] Read More »
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Monhegan Island Lobster Fishing
In late 1956, Kosti Ruohomaa renegotiated his contract with Black Star, giving up a weekly salary for freedom to work on […] Read More »
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Dodge Mountain
In 1924, when Kosti Ruohomaa was a child, his family moved to Dodge Mountain in Rockland, Maine, where they’d purchased a […] Read More »
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Maine Fish Dragger
In July of 1957, Ruohomaa went on a 10-day voyage to the Grand Banks on the Quincy, a steel hulled, deep […] Read More »
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Sardine Fishing
Kosti Ruohomaa documented the herring fishery from every angle over a number of years including 1953, 1957, 1958, and 1960. He […] Read More »
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