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Rodeos and Roundups, Hobo Conventions, Spanish Churches - and More Are Subjects for Kisken’s Camera
Hutterite
child, photo by Bob Kisken
Robert (Bob)
Kisken is one of those people who is doing things which are interesting, worthwhile,
and a little bit unusual. His father was William Kisken, probably born in
New York City and placed in an orphanage in Peekskill, New York. His mother’s
maiden name was German – Engeljohann. There is a bit of mystery connected
with his father. Bob says he “claimed” to be a Finn. Since Kisken
is a Finnish name – one finds Kiskens on Finnish genealogical websites
— that claim seems fairly well substantiated. The name sounds perhaps
more Swedish than Finnish – not surprising since Finland and Sweden were
one country for some hundreds of years.
A brother’s efforts to trace him turned up a Kisken in Ohio who was married
in the 1800’s, but for whom there was no other information. So if any
NWF readers are acquainted with anyone by the name of Kisken, they are encouraged
to contact Bob at bkisken@yahoo.com.
Bob has a keen interest in his Finnish background. After picking up the translations
of two books by Kalle Päätalo in a Finnish gift shop in Calumet,
Michigan, he has read practically every translation from Finnish he has been
able to get his hands on.
A Free Spirit
Born in Tareytown, New York, he studied for a time at Hope College in Holland,
Michigan from 1953-55, took his BA in math at Rockford College, Rockford,
Illinois, lived for a time in Ann Arbor, and then did graduate work in government
at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. That was followed by a stint in Cookeville,
Tennessee, where he was able to pursue his interest in social issues. There
he worked for a year in the poverty program, acting as Assistant director
of Operation Pebble, a program for Appalachian kids at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.
During his tenure there he also wrote a head-start proposal for a 5-county
area in Tennessee.
Teaching and Photography
From about 1965 to 1994, for some thirty years, Bob settled down to teach
math and government in the public schools of Ann Arbor. While still teaching
there, he developed an interest in photography. As he puts it, “I got
serious about photography 18 years ago when I first started traveling out
west during the summer.” With his retirement, he was able to devote more
time to his hobby.
Regarding his photos, Bob says: “I’m not very focused. I have no
responsibilities and I wander around taking photos of whatever I want.”
A fascination with the American West resulted from trips to that region. Five
years ago Bob moved to Mobridge, South Dakota, and started going to brandings
and rodeos, where he found rich subjects for his photography. He has “shot”
many such events. He now lives in Casper, Wyoming.
He has spent a couple of winters in Taos, New Mexico, where he shot a lot
of old Spanish churches and moradas (residences). His camera-eye was also
caught by crosses set up along a New Mexico highway in places where people
had been killed.
Photographic subjects
Speaking of his preferred subjects, Bob says, “I like scenery, brandings,
corn fields, barns, rodeos, anything that strikes my fancy. I have some nice
pictures of people at sale barns, Hutterite kids, Indian kids at a school
in S.D., the Hobo festival in Britt Iowa. I take lots of pictures and use
good equipment.”
The last two winters Bob has spent in Casper, Wyoming, where he was introduced
to college rodeos, which he has begun to photograph.
Hobo Festival photographs
For a few years, he has attended the Hobo Festival in Britt, Iowa, where his
photographs are on display at the Hobo Museum. Buzz Potter, the President
of the National Hobo Association, says: “The hobo was a wandering worker.
We were not moochers and we used the freight trains to get from place to place
where there was work.”
Errol Lincoln Uys, author of Riding the Rails, a collection of letters about
teenage hobos during the Great Depression, says as many as 250,000 teenagers
and 4 million adults turned to a life of migrant labor along the railways
between 1929 and the start of World War II. Uys says the current generation
frequently confuses hobos with the homeless, but Potter says there was a difference:
“The hobo worked and wandered. The tramp wandered but didn’t work.
And the bum neither wandered nor worked — he just hung around skid row
and stayed drunk.”
Exhibits and published photos
Bob’s work has been published in the South Dakotan Magazine and in the
Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Some of his western pictures have been exhibited
at the Klein Museum in Mobridge, South Dakota, by the Chamber of Commerce
in that city, and at the High Plains Heritage Center in Spearfish, South Dakota.
At the time of this writing, he has an exhibit of black-and-white photos of
people taken at cattle sales in the Glenrock, Wyoming, Sale Barn. Another
exhibit in the Glenrock Library shows women doing all the jobs associated
with taking care of the cattle, up to and including the branding. The exhibit
will be on display at the Wyoming meeting of Women in Agriculture in Casper,
Wyoming, and will go from there to the library in Douglas, Wyoming. Another
exhibit will be the showing of his Taos photos and photos of children at an
Indian and a Hutterite school in Glenrock.