Ngo Thanh Minh's photograph, entitled Lighting Dream, won the Vietnam National Award at the Sony World Photography Awards.

The Hue City resident’s winning photograph was chosen as the single best entry in any of the awards’ 10 open categories.

“I am honoured that the jury appreciated my photo. This is a great opportunity for photographers around the world to learn and take up challenges in their work," Minh said.

“The photo was taken on the Perfume River in Hue City when two girls were releasing the lights to pray for their families. This is a Vietnamese tradition unique to Huế City, which is followed to wish for a happy and peaceful life.”

Lighting Dream will be displayed at the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House, London, from April 22 to May 8. It will also be published in the annual Sony World Photography Awards book.

The exhibition will include the winning and shortlisted entries of the professional, open and youth competitions, alongside the first major European exhibition of artistic photographer duo RongRonh&inri (China/Japan), the recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the awards.

Two photographs, entitled Child and A Happiness Family, by Ngo Thanh Binh and Le Trung Hung won the second and third prizes, respectively.

The National Awards programme, which honours and rewards the best single image taken by a local photographer, is conducted in 60 countries. It is open to photographers of all abilities.

The Sony World Photography Awards rewards and recognises the world’s best contemporary photography of the previous year.

VN reporter wins Honourable Mention in NY photo contest

Award-winning series: "The Room"

Vietnamese reporter-photographer Viet Van won Honourable Mention in the US photo competition Same but Different for his series titled The room.

His work received high praised for its creativity, according to jury member Darren Ching, co-owner of the Klompching Gallery in New York.

The New York Center for Photographic Art organised the contest, which attracted the participation of hundreds of photographers from many countries. Contest entries will be displayed in late March.

Contest rules challenged photographers to pair 2 photographs and present them in diptych format, with both images in a single file. Contest guidelines called for pairing 2 seemingly identical images which are different enough to make each unique.

Văn’s work will also be included in a catalog by the contest organiser. The catalog is designed to introduce contestants’ work to leading creative directors and art critics in New York. Van works for the Lao Dong (Labour) daily. He has won numerous international prizes in his career.

Van is the only Vietnamese national to have won the Pollux Annual Award - under the UK-based Worldwide Photography Gala Awards - on four occasions, including two first prizes. 

VNS