‘The Passionate Photographer’ | Kosti Ruohomaa
Kosti Ruohomaa’s work told the stories of Maine’s people and the rugged lives they led. When Kosti Ruohomaa looked through the lens of his camera, he saw not only a single photograph but also a story, one filled with emotion, drama, and the complexity of life. Ruohomaa was born to Finnish immigrants in Quincy, Massachusetts, […]
Trawler Quincy at the Grand Banks, 1957.
Photo Credit : © Black Star, Lofman Collection, Maine State MuseumKosti Ruohomaa’s work told the stories of Maine’s people and the rugged lives they led.
When Kosti Ruohomaa looked through the lens of his camera, he saw not only a single photograph but also a story, one filled with emotion, drama, and the complexity of life. Ruohomaa was born to Finnish immigrants in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1913, but moved to Maine at age 13, and, during an international career that saw his work in leading publications throughout the 1940s and ’50s until his death in 1961, it was Maine that called to him more than anywhere else.
Photo Credit : © Black Star, Lofman Collection, Maine State Museum
This photo, Trawler Quincy at the Grand Banks, 1957, a gelatin silver print, is now on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta until July 2016 as part of an exhibition, The Passionate Photographer: Kosti Ruohomaa’s Maine in Magazine Photojournalism, showcasing his remarkable eye for story and understated emotion. Whether you’re viewing the freezing swells faced by Grand Banks fishermen or the steadfastness of a Maine farmer on his well-worn path to a winter barn, once you spend time seeing the world through Ruohomaa’s eye, something will change for you.
Howard Chapnick, who headed the Black Star photo agency, for which Ruohomaa shot many of his images, once said, “The word[‘artist’] is thrown around with gay abandon in photography: ‘This picture looks like a Rembrandt, this one like a Renoir.’ Kosti’s photographs do not have to be compared to the work of painters. A Ruohomaa picture looks like a Ruohomaa!”mainestatemuseum.org—Mel Allen
Photo Credit : Lofman Collection, Maine State Museum
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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