Art Talk on Photographer Kosti Ruohomaa at Maine Art Gallery

Several of Kosti Ruohomaa’s haunting and desolate, yet often beautiful and welcoming photographs of Maine in an earlier time are included in Nocturne, the current exhibit at the Maine Art gallery. But we will have an opportunity to view a wide range of the photographer’s work during an Art Talk at the gallery on Sunday, October 6 at 3 pm.

Kevin Johnson, photo archivist for the Penobscot Marine Museum (PMM) in Searsport, Maine will present “Kosti Ruohomaa: A LIFE Behind the Lens.” The slide show and talk focuses on the Rockland, Maine photographer, Kosti Ruohomaa, a photography rock star during the era of photo magazines such as LIFE.

The Ruohomaa Collection of photographs has come home to Maine through a generous donation to PMM by Black Star of New York, Ruohomaa’s photography agency, and it consists of thousands of medium and large format negatives, 35 mm negatives and slides, as well as contact sheets and vintage prints.His photographs graced the cover of Life Magazine numerous times. Other major magazines such as Look, National Geographic, and Downeast used his photos regularly.

While he photographed around the world, Maine was Kosti’s favorite subject. Kosti was a storyteller with a camera. He captured the spirit and culture of Maine through its people and landscape as few other photographers have ever done. He died prematurely in 1961 at the age of 47.
The collection is now part of the archives of the Penobscot Marine Museum and is currently being digitized and cataloged. PMM has more than 500,0000 thousand images from their various collections that can be viewed on the museum’s website in their online database. www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

The gallery thanks season sponsor Sherri Dunbar of Tim Dunham Realty, capital sponsor, Islebrook Villages at Wiscasset, and Nocturne exhibit sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance.

The Maine Art Gallery, located at 15 Warren Street in Wiscasset, is dedicated to the advancement and preservation of the visual, fine and applied arts through exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations and educational programs for children and adults since 1958. More information can be found at www.maineartgallerywiscasset.org and on Facebook at Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset.

(photo caption)
“Night Train at Wiscasset Station,” cover photo for a book of Kosti Ruohomaa photos by Lew Dietz. Many more Ruohomaa photos can be seen at the MAG Art Talk on Sunday October 6 at 3 pm.