Roger W. Vail

Roger W. Vail, age 80, died on January 12, 2026, in Sacramento, California. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent much of his childhood growing up in nearby Skokie.

Those early years were marked by strong family ties and an early appreciation for learning and creativity. From a young age, Roger loved reading, music, and art, and he read everything he could get his hands on. During his junior high and high school years, he was a painter and especially enjoyed creating portraits, an early expression of the keen eye and sensitivity that would later define his photographic work. His musical tastes leaned toward classical, jazz, and blues, along with the timeless songs of Frank Sinatra, music he enthusiastically shared with his sister, introducing her to a wide and lasting appreciation of sound and style.

Roger's formal education began at St. Margaret Mary School in Chicago and continued at St. Lambert School in Skokie. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Niles, IL, with the Class of 1963, and went on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in Photography. His graduate studies helped shape both his artistic vision and his future as an educator.

In 1970, Roger joined California State University, Sacramento, as an Assistant Professor of Art. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1976 and Full Professor in 1982. Over the decades, he taught Photography, Drawing, and Filmmaking to both undergraduate and graduate students, earning a reputation as a thoughtful mentor and inspiring teacher. In 2006, he retired and was conferred the status of Professor Emeritus, continuing to teach part time for five more years before fully retiring in 2011.

In 1977, Roger married his childhood sweetheart, Carol Margaret Vail (née Smart). Roger, Carol, and her son Claude made their home in Sacramento that year, and in 1980 their son Christopher was born. They shared forty-eight years together, building a loving family life alongside Roger's career and creative pursuits.

Alongside teaching, Roger maintained an active and highly respected artistic practice. His photographic work was exhibited in more than 40 solo and group exhibitions and featured in at least 30 publications. In 2006, his work appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine, accompanying the article "At the Carnival" by Garrison Keillor.

Some of the recurring subjects of his work were carnivals, piers, water, and moonlit nightscapes which he captured with his vintage 8 x 10 Deardorff view camera . He followed the small fairs moving around California to get different angles of the attractions. One critic described these resulting images as "wonderfully poetic and transformational as they focus on the process of transition, the process of transition in the flow of time and space." Another likens his work to a "circus mirror-a shadow world in which reflections and refractions transform solids into liquids and gaseous apparitions." But his lifelong passion was not limited to long exposures of spinning carnival rides; he traveled the streets of his native Chicago, the waterways of Sacramento, throughout the American West, and also in Europe, documenting and creating beauty in what he referred to as inconspicuous places.

Roger's photographs are included in numerous permanent public and private collections in the United States and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art, the UCLA Wight Art Gallery, the Smart Museum of Art, Purdue University, and the University of New Mexico.

He was preceded in death by his parents, William C. Vail, Jr. and Juanita F. Vail (née Wright), and by his wife, Carol Margaret Vail (née Smart). He is survived by his son, Christopher W. Vail of Sacramento, CA; his stepson, Claude Potts IV (Eunice Park) of Berkeley, CA, and their children, Sabina and Leo; his sister, Allison A. Vail (David Triska) of Centennial, CO; and his niece, Danielle M. Ault (Justin), and their children, Trinity, William, Callie, and Abby.

Roger will be deeply missed by his surviving family, former students, colleagues, and all who knew him. His legacy lives on through the many artists he inspired and through a remarkable body of work that continues to be seen, studied, and admired around the world.

If you wish, donations can be made in his memory to Pajaro Valley Loaves & Fishes or the Elkorn Slough Foundation.