Snowbound Settlement, Fraser, Colorado 1

Snowbound Settlement, Fraser, Colorado 1

Winter scene of a logging operation near a big mountain range. In the winter of 1954 Life Magazine sent Ruohomaa to Fraser, Colorado to photograph life and work amongst the woodsmen and ranchers in the frigid, snow-laden landscapes of the Rocky Mountains. The following year Life assigned him to make images to illustrate the magazine's centennial celebration of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", including scenes from Fraser, and other locations tracing the path of the poet around America. Ultimately the magazine selected twelve, titled "The Paths Whitman Walked: poet's 'Leaves of Grass' has its 100th anniversary." Sixteen years later, several of Ruohomaa's photos from Colorado and beyond were included in another publication of the poet's collection, "The Illustrated Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman" (1971). Howard Chapnick , Ruohomaa's dear friend and colleague, was the editor, and had arranged early on in the project to have the poet William Carlos Williams write the introduction. In it Williams' insights extolled a deep appreciation of the relationship between the arts of poetry and photography. Ruohomaa sought out conditions of weather and light that provided mood and sometimes conveyed physical or even psychological unease. From a contact sheet that remains we know he shot this among several scenes in and around Fraser probably during the same early morning hours. In an atmospheric image comprised of layers, smoke rises from a chimney up through cold air, where higher up a dim sun turns a thin cloud into a smear in the sky. A range of grays and whites form layers contrasting the snowy ground, the darker, distant mountains, and the brighter sky. The darkest forms comprise a array of geometric elements: the gable of a roof, vertical electrical poles, and a pile of logs whose ends read as almost abstract white dots.