Richard Stefani (1933–2022)
From Before the Water Rose: Celilo Falls, 1956
To understand Celilo Falls, it is not enough to look only at the water.
Look at the people.
Richard Stefani filled this photograph with them.
Some stand at the river's edge. Others occupy wooden platforms suspended above the current. Some appear to be fishing while others watch, wait, talk, or move through the scene. Behind them, the railroad bridge crosses the Columbia and the dry hills of the Gorge rise in the distance.
Nothing has been simplified for the camera.
That is precisely what makes the photograph so valuable.
Richard allows us to see Celilo as a working place. The river may be visually spectacular, but it is not empty wilderness. Human activity exists throughout the frame.
The photograph also rewards close looking. At first we see the falls. Then platforms. Then individual figures. Then nets, poles, timbers, pathways and gathering places. The longer we look, the more populated the landscape becomes.
Taken in the fall of 1956, the photograph preserves a place on the verge of profound physical change. Yet there is no sense of an ending within Richard's frame. People are simply going about what they came to the river to do.
That distinction lies at the heart of Before the Water Rose.
We know what happened next.
Richard's subjects were living in the present.
His photograph allows us, briefly, to enter it with them.
Estate Edition
Printed from Richard Stefani's original 1956 color negative.
Chromogenic photographic print on Fuji Crystal Archive DP II paper, produced in Germany and mounted under matte, reflection-reducing acrylic glass with aluminum Dibond backing. Presented in a handcrafted Basel black oak floater frame. Ready to hang.
Each work is accompanied by Richard Stefani Estate documentation recording the photograph, edition number, edition size, production specifications, and provenance.
12 × 8 in.
Edition of 25
$1,500
24 × 16 in.
Edition of 15
$3,200
30 × 20 in.
Edition of 10
$6,500
Edition sizes are fixed and will not be increased.
Richard Stefani (1933–2022)
From Before the Water Rose: Celilo Falls, 1956
To understand Celilo Falls, it is not enough to look only at the water.
Look at the people.
Richard Stefani filled this photograph with them.
Some stand at the river's edge. Others occupy wooden platforms suspended above the current. Some appear to be fishing while others watch, wait, talk, or move through the scene. Behind them, the railroad bridge crosses the Columbia and the dry hills of the Gorge rise in the distance.
Nothing has been simplified for the camera.
That is precisely what makes the photograph so valuable.
Richard allows us to see Celilo as a working place. The river may be visually spectacular, but it is not empty wilderness. Human activity exists throughout the frame.
The photograph also rewards close looking. At first we see the falls. Then platforms. Then individual figures. Then nets, poles, timbers, pathways and gathering places. The longer we look, the more populated the landscape becomes.
Taken in the fall of 1956, the photograph preserves a place on the verge of profound physical change. Yet there is no sense of an ending within Richard's frame. People are simply going about what they came to the river to do.
That distinction lies at the heart of Before the Water Rose.
We know what happened next.
Richard's subjects were living in the present.
His photograph allows us, briefly, to enter it with them.
Estate Edition
Printed from Richard Stefani's original 1956 color negative.
Chromogenic photographic print on Fuji Crystal Archive DP II paper, produced in Germany and mounted under matte, reflection-reducing acrylic glass with aluminum Dibond backing. Presented in a handcrafted Basel black oak floater frame. Ready to hang.
Each work is accompanied by Richard Stefani Estate documentation recording the photograph, edition number, edition size, production specifications, and provenance.
12 × 8 in.
Edition of 25
$1,500
24 × 16 in.
Edition of 15
$3,200
30 × 20 in.
Edition of 10
$6,500
Edition sizes are fixed and will not be increased.
