Photograph by Daniel Nyblin, ca. 1899
Herman and his family originally came from Suikasenlahti in Sortavala, on the northern shore of Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe. Members of this Kurki family had lived there for at least six generations before Herman. Herman was a photographer by profession and had a studio in Kuopio, in Northern Savonia. Herman and his wife Anna Bethulia had six children, four daughters and two sons. The children were occasionally invited to act as models for photographs taken by their father.