ABOUT

Dustin Patar is an award-winning freelance visual journalist based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.

Born in San Francisco, California and raised across the United States and Canada, Dustin often found himself connecting with outliers, the people and places that, more often than not, are passed by. As a journalist, he’s still drawn to these stories—often asking himself whose voice is missing, why and how he can help change that.

Aside from the Canadian Arctic, Dustin’s work has taken him from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the shores of West Africa. His work and the projects he’s contributed to have been published by Canadian Geographic, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, The Narwhal, CBC North, CBC Indigenous, Hakai Magazine, Up Here Magazine, Motherboard and Nunatsiaq News where he worked as a daily news reporter.

Dustin holds a master’s degree from the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. There he participated in one of Canada’s only programs for reporting in Indigenous communities and was selected to attend a military journalism workshop hosted by the University of Calgary. While he was at UBC, Dustin was also chosen as one of 10 Global Reporting Program Fellows, where he was part of a team sent to Senegal and The Gambia to report on the local impact of the international fishmeal industry.

In 2019, Dustin was named a Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellow, where he produced, directed and edited an episode of the EPPY award-winning documentary series, State of Emergency, about natural disaster recovery in the United States.

His photography work has been recognized at the Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia and most recently, as a finalist in the general news category of the National Newspaper Awards for an image he shot while on assignment for The Canadian Press.

When Dustin isn’t holding a camera or in front of a computer doing research, writing or tinkering with audio or video, he can be found behind a sewing machine, fixing some sort of vehicle, or out on the land.

Awards

  • 2023 International Sports Press Association Media Awards [Top 10] - Writing, Best Colour Piece

  • 2023 Canadian Journalism Foundation Edward Burtynsky Award for Climate Photojournalism

  • 2023 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation’s Environmental Photography Award [Third Place] - Polar Wonders

  • 2023 Digital Publishing Award [Gold] - Best Photo Storytelling

  • 2022 National Newspaper Award [Finalist] - Best News Photo

  • 2021 Quebec Community Newspaper Award - Best News Story

  • 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award [part of News21 team]

  • 2020 Online Journalism Award - Pro-Am Student Award [part of News21 team]

  • 2019 Editors & Publishers (EPPY) Award - Best college/university investigative documentary [part of News21 team]

  • 2019 Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Award - Large-scale student project [part of News21 team]

  • 2018 Jack Webster Foundation Student Journalism Award