An award-winning photographer for the Los Angeles Times who has shot everything from Olympian portraits to celebrities to a nudist resort will be the next person to participate in the Media Arts Speaker Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 in the Great Hall at Pierce College.

Jay L. Clendenin has been a staff photographer for the Times for five years and has 14 years of experience covering Hollywood, politics and more.

Clendenin will visit Pierce as part of the Pierce College Media Arts Department Speaker Series, a free program that welcomes esteemed speakers from the radio, film, journalism and website worlds.

The events are a semester-long effort funded by the Associated Students Organization. Students, faculty, staff and the community are invited. Faculty can receive Flex Credit for attending.

Refreshments will be served. Parking is available for $3 in Lot 1, near the Sheriff’s Station off Brahma Drive and Winnetka Avenue.

From Jay L. Clendenin:

“Jay L. Clendenin has been a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times for five years, with 14 years of experience navigating the star-studded world of Hollywood, the political intrigue of Washington, D.C., and all spectrums of society between the east and west coasts.

Starting at the Hartford Courant newspaper in 1998, landing in Washington, D.C., in 2002, with a brief stop in New York City, Jay has covered a multitude of local, state and national news and feature stories and longed for the day he could return to his home state of California.

Whether it’s an image of U2 front man Bono, sensitive coverage of behind-the-scenes presidential wranglings, or delicately composed images of volleyball at a nudist resort (don’t ask), Jay moves through assignments with the perfect mixture of tenacity and ease, earning the trust of his subjects and the confidence of assignment editors.

While Jay has had quite a ride in the photographic world, having experienced a staff position and then leaving to freelance, he feels lucky every day to be able to work at a newspaper with the resources of the Los Angeles Times. tackling recent projects like his Olympic portraits shot on paper negatives or conceiving and executing a portrait studio at the Sundance Film Festival, are projects every editorial photographer dreams of and the Times affords him those opportunities.

Jay’s work has been widely recognized by Communication Arts, NPPA, SND, WHNPA, and POYi.”