Fishing in front of the Dalles dam
I met fisherman Lew George several years ago while scouting for photography opportunities near the Dalles, Oregon, for my forthcoming book on the Big River. When he told me he was a photographer, I was keen to get a chance to glimpse how he sees the river. Three years later, I’m very happy to share the multimedia presentation that B. “Toastie” Oaster and High Country News put together of the words and photos of a friend and colleague - fisherman and photographer Lew George. It offers a glimpse into the life of an Indigenous Fisherman on the Columbia River. Grateful now that his images and words are available to everyone. Honored to have been a part of bringing this to publication. I have a portrait I made of him included in it.
Over the past several years I would make occasional visits to Lew when I was in the neighborhood. Finally, about a year ago, Lew was ready to share some of his images with me and then share them more broadly. I brought down a slide and negative scanner and we spent a day going through his images. We sorted through them and I converted them to digital files, on a table he usually used for processing salmon he caught in the river. While we went through the images he shared some of the stories behind many of the photos.
Afterwards, I went through the hundreds of images we had digitized and put together a portfolio of about 30 of them, which we shared with Bear Guerra, Photo Editor at High Country News. The publication was excited to work with Lew to publish a photo essay. Reporter B. Toastie Oaster was brought in to help capture Lew’s stories to accompany his images.
Over my years of visiting Lew I had the chance to take a number of photos that will be included in my book - Big River - due to be published next spring. Lew himself will be one of several “River People” profiled in the book. Seeing Lew’s images and hearing his stories helped me appreciate the differences between our ways of seeing the River; how the images I take are shaped by being a member of settler-colonial society, and how settler-colonial society has literally drowned much Lew’s peoples history and culture along the river.
For me, the experience of getting Lew’s first hand accounts and images of what this has meant for him personally, his community, and the river we both love, has been illuminating and humbling.
Here are a few of my images of Lew and folks from his community. Please take a moment though to hear directly from Lew about his perspective on this river.
A portrait of Lew I made for my forthcoming book on the Big River which was used for the story High Country News put together of his images
Lew looking at photos he took on the tailgate of his pickup truck
Young people that help Lew fish from platforms along the Big River
Lew suggested I take this photo to show the world what it looks like to be an Indian today
