Vidar's winning photo of Disney Concert Hall
Jon Vidar, photographer and multimedia services consultant for the USC Libraries, won an Award of Distinction at FotoWeekDC last Thursday for his self-portrait in front of the Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. You can read his account of the trip to D.C. on his blog and see a photo gallery from his trip. A few of the highlights were winning the award, seeing his work displayed in a Georgetown gallery, and getting photography advice from the senior photo editor of National Geographic. Here's what she had to say:
1) do your homework before starting a story. You need to know what the story is before going and shooting aimlessly. The narrative is more important than the single photo. 2) Find a niche market in photography and do it better than anyone else. For me, she got very excited when I told her that my background is in archaeology. Apparently, there are only a few photographers in the world that they can call on for that specialized field.
Vidar will give a lecture at the Badé Museum in Berkeley on December 3rd about his experiences photographing Kurdish refugee camps in northern iraq.