Richard Stefani (1933–2022)
From Before the Water Rose: Celilo Falls, 1956
Stand back from the photograph.
Then begin looking.
People are everywhere.
They gather on the rocks at left. They stand beside platforms at right. They cross the middle of the photograph. They watch. They work. They talk. Adults and children occupy the same landscape.
The longer we look, the more populated Celilo becomes.
That is why this photograph matters.
Historical places can become abstract with time.
A name.
A date.
A dam.
A before and an after.
Richard Stefani's photograph resists that abstraction.
Celilo was full of people.
Wooden platforms and ladders extend through the rocky channels. Water moves through the center of the photograph. Groups form and dissolve across the landscape. In the distance, the walls of the Columbia Gorge rise above everything.
Richard gives us no single protagonist.
The community is the subject.
And because of that, this photograph may ultimately become one of the most important historical documents in the series.
It asks us to understand Celilo not merely as spectacular water, and not merely as a location where fishing occurred.
It asks us to see a lived place.
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.
10 × 10 in.
Edition of 25
$1,500
20 × 20 in.
Edition of 15
$3,200
30 × 30 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
Stand back from the photograph.
Then begin looking.
People are everywhere.
They gather on the rocks at left. They stand beside platforms at right. They cross the middle of the photograph. They watch. They work. They talk. Adults and children occupy the same landscape.
The longer we look, the more populated Celilo becomes.
That is why this photograph matters.
Historical places can become abstract with time.
A name.
A date.
A dam.
A before and an after.
Richard Stefani's photograph resists that abstraction.
Celilo was full of people.
Wooden platforms and ladders extend through the rocky channels. Water moves through the center of the photograph. Groups form and dissolve across the landscape. In the distance, the walls of the Columbia Gorge rise above everything.
Richard gives us no single protagonist.
The community is the subject.
And because of that, this photograph may ultimately become one of the most important historical documents in the series.
It asks us to understand Celilo not merely as spectacular water, and not merely as a location where fishing occurred.
It asks us to see a lived place.
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.
10 × 10 in.
Edition of 25
$1,500
20 × 20 in.
Edition of 15
$3,200
30 × 30 in.
Edition of 10
$6,500
Edition sizes are fixed and will not be increased.
