‘The Passionate Photographer’ opens Saturday

AUGUSTA — The Maine State Museum’s newest exhibition, featuring the photography of Kosti Ruohomaa, will open in a new museum gallery space 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, July 18. The Museum will offer free admission on opening day.

Kosti Ruohomaa (1913-1961), a Finnish-American photographer from Rockland was known for his images of Maine and New England, particularly photographic essays that captured the vast land and seascape, drama of the seasons, richness of rural life, and integrity of Maine people.

The exhibition at the museum includes about 60 images, as well as vintage magazines in which Ruohomaa’s photographs were published, and personal scrapbooks that Ruohomaa kept to document his career. “The Passionate Photographer” is the first comprehensive exhibition of Ruohomaa’s work and is based on curator Deanna Bonner-Ganter’s decades-long research. A biography about Ruohomaa by Bonner-Ganter and published by Down East, is scheduled to be released in September.

The exhibit will be on view until July 2016 and is also part of the Maine Photo Project, a year-long celebration of photography that features a wide variety of programs and exhibits at 32 cultural organizations across Maine (www.mainephotoproject.org).

The Maine State Museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission cost $2 for adults; $1 for senior adults older than 62 and children 6-18 years old; children younger than 6 get in for free. Maximum charge for families is $6. For more information, call 287-2301, or visit the Maine State Museum website.