Kosti Ruohomaa's photographs in the Lew Dietz book “Night Train at Wiscasset Station,” introduced a familiar and inspirational view of Maine. 

His was a very straightforward view, uncluttered and lacking conformity, determined to record a vanishing way of life in and around near his family home by Rockland.

I was reminded of Ruohomaa's work by the scene of old abandoned pilings, pinned into the Wiscasset waterfront near the rail line that follows the shore south along the bay. 

It's actually just beyond the spot of Ruohomaa's “Night Train” cover photo, which shows a passenger steam train taking on or discharging passengers at the station building that still remains. 

It is an image I have always admired.

Photographs, in the most basic way, mark a place in time. They are a record of who we are and where we have been. And in some instances, what we have become. It seems to me a valuable process Ruohomaa shared and one to which I aspire.

Time will tell.