Submitted photo / Rebecca Nieminen This is one of 32 photos taken by Kinsman native Rebecca Nieminen that was chosen for display at University Hospital as part of Ohio’s 88 Counties Photography Project. The hospital purchased this one and two others to keep after the show ends.

KINSMAN — A local photographer’s work has been selected to adorn the walls of a Columbus hospital, which is scheduled to open in about a month.

Rebecca Nieminen, owner of Storyteller Photography: Images by Rebecca, specializes in portraiture and fine art landscape and nature photography, which she said has been a hobby since she was a teenager.

She didn’t pursue it professionally until 2013, after a divorce left her a single parent.

“I wanted to earn money doing something creative and be self-employed with a flexible schedule so I could be there for my two young children,” she said.

Nieminen said 32 of her images were chosen for “Ohio’s 88 Counties Photography Project.”

The images will decorate the inpatient corridors of the 24-story, 820-bed University Hospital, which will replace a few buildings and connect to the existing James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Most of the photos were taken in Trumbull, Mahoning, Ashtabula and Geauga counties, she said.

Marti Leitch, media relations director for the Wexner Medical Center’s Communications and Marketing, said the hospital, scheduled to open Feb. 22 for patient care, said the hospital’s environmental branding team connected with photographers across Ohio.

“We reached out to about 200 photographers throughout the five-month process of selecting the almost 600 images we have curated,” Leitch said in an email.

Leitch said at least 90% of the photographers chosen have an Ohio connection, whether they actively live here, used to live here or have visited.

The goal, she said, was to collect six to seven images per county, and photos are of subjects including farms, fields, bicentennial barns, covered bridges, waterfalls, lakes, rivers and downtowns.

“We even incorporated Ohio baby animals on our maternity care floors,” Leitch said.

The collection of photos is meant to celebrate The Ohio State University’s land grant history and the center’s vision to be a premiere health system in Ohio, Leitch said.

A plaque will accompany each photograph with the message “The Ohio State University was founded as a Land-Grant University — a program established by President Abraham Lincoln amidst the throes of the Civil War … In recognition of our patients and their families, this hospital’s patient corridors exhibit photographs of natural wonders, historic landmarks and cultural artifacts from Ohio’s 88 counties.”

Nieminen is also working with a few big box stores that have expressed interest in possibly licensing some of her images for sale in the U.S. and Canada, but she said a deal has not yet been finalized.

Much of her work is centered on rural life, documenting the many weathered barns, country churches and lighthouses she comes across in her travels.

She also does senior pictures and headshots.

Over the past decade, her work has been featured in several Ohio art galleries, and in 2024, a photograph she calls “Solar Eclipse Angel” went viral, with people from across the country placing orders for prints.

She was also named one of Lake Erie’s best photographers in 2023 by “Lake Erie Living” magazine.

One of her images was picked as a cover photo for the Geauga County Tourism Bureau’s 2026 visitor’s guide.

She received a bachelor’s degree in professional writing and editing from Youngstown State University in 1998, and a master’s degree in English in 2010.

She has also worked for The Vindicator as a reporter and photographer and taught introductory composition at YSU.

While writing was her first love, Nieminen said she had been “dabbling in visual arts since childhood.”

She has self-published two photography books, “Searching for Ascension” and “For the Love of Old Barns.” Nieminen also authored the historical novel, set in 1820s Ohio, “The Dance of the White Deer.”

She said the book is based on true events and was selected in 2013 as a finalist for The Eludia Award, offered by Hidden River Publishing to women writers over the age of 40.

“From the time I could hold a crayon, I was drawing or painting pictures,” she said, explaining it has always brought her a sense of peace and joy to create.

“I have not given up my writing goals and would like to publish more books, but for now, photography pays the bills,” she said.