Few people realize that for many years Hugh Nibley was an avid amateur nature photographer. A common theme in his photographs is small people juxtaposed against monumental, overwhelming landscapes. One example is the picture here of Hugh’s sons Paul (left) and Tom in Provo Canyon with Bridal Veil Falls in the background, taken around 1956.
A note about the music used in the video of Christina Nibley Mincek speaking at HN’s funeral: Once, when he had just returned from the place he loved the most, Southern Utah, Hugh was playing a favorite record, Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, and as he listened he said he always felt moved to listen to that particular piece after returning from the redrock country because he knew of nothing else that could match the grandeur of the Zion Canyon. The brief selection we’ve used in the video here is played by Kelly Richardson; a recording of the full Fantasy (though not the fugue) is here, recorded by Wilhelm Kempff in 1945, which we believe is the version HN used to listen to after his jaunts to Zion.
Hugh Nibley died eight years ago today, February 24, 2005.
Loved it! Thanks for sharing. I really regret not taking the time to meet Hugh in person and thank him for his work–but I did not want to detract from his work. It is still incomprehensible to me how someone could change diapers, have eight children, grind wheat, teach and then still be so prolific in reading and especially writing….