Neil Hughes, Author and Retired World Bank Employee, Wins Best of Loudoun" Photography Award at the Waterford Fair

Waterford, VA --

   Neil Hughes, an award-winning photographer and author of Chinas Economic Challenge: Breaking the Iron Rice Bowl (M.E. Sharpe, 2002), won the Best of Loudoun" photography award at the Waterford Fair last night. The award comes with a $500 prize, given by Leesburg Today. Mr. Hughes immediately donated the prize money to the Waterford Foundation Fund to preserve the Phillips Farm, which was featured in his Best of Loudoun" photograph."

   The Best of Loudoun" award is given to the photograph that best represents an image that exemplifies Loudoun County. Neil Hughes photograph is a view of his wife Kathleens garden and the Waterford fields during last years blizzard.

The Waterford Fair is a three day festival featuring the sale and demonstration of traditional crafts, tours of historic homes, military re-enactments, art exhibits-all accompanied by music and dance and good food-held throughout the National Historic Landmark of Waterford, Virginia. Net proceeds benefit the preservation and education work of the Waterford Foundation.

Every year since 1943, the Waterford Foundation has run this annual fair. The entire town is closed to cars giving plenty of room for our 10,000 daily vistors. With hundreds of juried crafts persons exhibiting their wares and demonstrating their skill, the Exhibit is an important annual event in the Washington DC area. Along with watching and conversing with these exhibitors, there is also music and dancing, civil war reenactments, citizens in historical costumes, and great food. The proceeds from the fair are used to carry out the Foundation's mission of preserving Waterford's history.

Neil Hughes is the author of Chinas Economic Challenge: Breaking the Iron Rice Bowl and is currently retired from the World Bank, where he spent over 20 years helping to develop programs for the poverty-stricken in Latin American, Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh, and China. During 1992-2002, Neil Hughes helped Chinese officials and state enterprise managers implement reforms and reduce urban pollution. He is an expert on economic development and is a freelance writer, who has been published in such publications as Foreign Affairs and the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal. Neil has an M.A. in international economics and politics from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, an M.A. in anthropology from The George Washington University and a B.A. in history of the College of Wooster in Ohio. In his retirement, Neil has discovered a new passion -- historic preservation. He has served as the president of the Waterford Foundation and has testified before government officials about land use and conservation.