 He studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago but took up photography during the late 1940s after moving to New York where the majority of his street photography and cityscapes were made.From the mid-fifties Vestal exhibited his photography and was included in eight exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where his work is included in its collections and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.He was the recipient of John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships in 1966 and 1973.