IN MEMORIAM
Nile Root - April 2, 2004 From: Howard LeVant It is my sad responsibility to tell you that I just heard from Abby
Root, Nile's wife.
He died peacefully at home this Friday after a long fight with cancer.
Nile was in home hospice and Abby and son Jim were at his side.
It is a great loss, for as you know, Nile "invented photography in
Denver Colorado" I can still hear him say that. Feel free to contact Abby at:
Abby Root
BIOGRAPHY
Nile Root, Professor Emeritus, College of Imaging Arts and Sciences,
School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology,
has been active in the field of biocommunications for over 45 years. He
is a Registered Biological Photographer (RBP), a Fellow of the Biological
Photographic Association (FBPA) and a Schmidt Laureate, the highest honor
awarded by the BPA - now renamed the BioCommunications Association, (BCA).
He directed the RIT program in Biocommunications for over 12 years. He
retired in 1986. While at RIT he was also the director of a government
grant (1973-77) for development of a baccalaureate degree in the field
of biocommunications. In 1986 Nile received the Award for Outstanding Teaching
at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Nile served as a Photographer's Mate in the U. S. Navy in World War
ll. After his discharge, in 1946, he was employed by the U.S. Field Information
Agency, Technical (FIAT), in occupied West Germany as a microphotographer.
He traveled throughout West Germany microfilming captured documents.
Since 1965 Nile has participated in nearly every exhibit of biological
photography sponsored yearly by the BPA. He has received over 50 awards
including 16 First Awards for his photographs. He has had several hundred
biological photographs published in books, professional journals and magazines.
After his retirement in 1986, he and his wife, Abby, lived in Japan
for two years where Abby taught English in a Nagasaki college and Nile
photographed. He also conducted seminars for a group of doctors who wanted
to increase their fluency in English as it related to medicine.
Nile and Abby traveled throughout Southeast Asia. Nile photographed
the total solar eclipse of 1988 from aboard a cruise ship in the Celebes
Sea, near Borneo. They spent two weeks in China visiting major cities from
Beijing, to Xian, to Singapore, days before the Tiananmen Square uprising.
When Nile and Abby returned to the U.S. they settled in Tucson, Arizona,
partly so that Nile could continue with his interest in astronomy and in
archaeoastronomy. In March, 1994, he published an illustrated paper in
Sky and Telescope magazine on an ancient sun-watching station near Tucson.
His research on this site has continued to the present. He has many images
of distinctive shadow patterns on prehistoric Native American petroglyph
celestial symbols: patterns made during the solstices and the equinoxes,
usually at sunrise.
His interest in petroglyphs, pictographs, and prehistoric ruins has
led him and Abby to travel throughout the Southwest in recent years. Two
of their favorite sites are Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, and Canyon de
Chelly, in Arizona. Nile has made hundreds of photographs of petroglyphs
at Three Rivers, and Boca Negra Canyon in New Mexico, and at Painted Rocks
and Signal Hill in Arizona. He has interesting photos of pictographs that
are about a thousand years old from Chaco Canyon, and from Hueco Tanks,
in Texas.
During his years in photography he has had 26 one-person exhibits of
personal creative images in U. S museums, galleries, and universities,
as well as in two galleries outside the U.S. He has also been in over 40
group shows. He recently completed a one-person fine art exhibit of computer
enhanced images, CHINA. The exhibit opened in February, 1999, in Tucson.
A subsequent one-person exhibit cyberZENopened in February, 2000, in Tucson.
Nile's home and office are at 7812 East Elida St., Tucson, AZ 85715-5009.
His biography is included in Who's
Who in America.
Note: A fund for a purchase prize of a print from the annual School of Photographic Arts and Sciences HONOR'S SHOW
has been established in the Biomedical Photographic Communications department to honor Nile and his
contributions to the school. Contact Prof. Michael Peres at mrppph@rit.edu if you would like to add to this fund.
You can see the extensive work that Nile had undertaken especially since his retirement and then,
in typical Nile fashion, made available for all to see and enjoy on the web. Take a moment to visit
his website at www.niler.com
Here are some announcements about some
completed work or work in progress that you can see detailed and illustrared
in his award-winning website:
ARCHAEOASTRONOMY:
June, 3, 1999, I added SIGNAL HILL, ARIZONA--- an ancient observatory
which shares its secrets through my photographs made over an eight year
period. REVISED JANUARY 16, 2000.
Also see my presentation on the GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS in N.M. --- (another
ancient observatory?).
July 8, 1999, --- I added my photo essay on CHACO CANYON, N.M., and
its astronomical connections.
I hope that you will explore these three subjects, all found through
the next page in the CONTENTS.
MORE NEW SECTIONS:
September, 5, 1999, --- a major section, The THREE RIVERS PETROGLYPH
SITE. See and read about some of the mysterious and intriguing ancient
images from this area in south-central N.M.
September 11, 1999, --- petroglyph images from 12 different sites --
see PREHISTORIC ROCK ART in the SOUTHWEST.
October 2, 1999, ------ cyberZEN, an exploration of form and color in
nature.
November 1, 1999, --- JAPANESE PATTERNS, photographs made over a two
year period.
November 6, 1999, --- ASIAN JOURNEY, selections from one-person exhibit.
December 26, 1999, --- EL MORRO, where prehistoric and historic inscriptions
meet.
January 24, 2000, --- CELESTIAL EVENTS, revised to include lunar eclipse
of 1/20/00.
April 2, 2000, --- ARIZONA-SONORA DESERT MUSEUM, a world-renowned site.
May 27, 2000, --- ANTELOPE CANYON, A beautiful slot canyon.
July 8, 2000, --- MONUMENT VALLEY, Magnificent land of the Navajo.
December 17, 2001, --- EASTER ISLAND, Mysterious remote island in the
South Pacific Ocean.
January 7, 2002, --- MIND POWER or HOAX? Thoughtography, An examination
of the claim that thoughts can be recorded with a camera.
January 30, 2002, --- PATAGONIA, CHILE The rugged snow-covered peaks
of the Andes.
August 6, 2002, --- MACHU PICCHU, PERU The Lost City of the Inca.
April 7, 2003, --- COPPER CANYON, MEXICO A Geological marvel.
July 14, 2003, --- HOLLYWOOD FOREVER, A classic movie is viewed in an
old cemetery in Hollywood
November 13, 2003, --- KARTCHNER CAVERNS, ARIZONA, A special tour where
photographs were permitted.
January 23, 2004, --- JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA, Explore
an alien landscape.
To contact Abby Root click on her e-mail address: abbyr314@aol.com
Nile, thanks for all the good times. We'll miss you.
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