Photographer Tran Tuan Viet has been named as winner of the National & Regional Award category at the Sony World Photography Awards 2024.
His photo features the Buddha statue on the peak of Ba Den Mountain in the southwestern province of Tay Ninh. It was captured at dawn in October 2023.
Viet’s photo was among 11 shortlisted from 415,000 entries taken by more than 74,000 photographers from 206 countries and territories worldwide, becoming the only Vietnamese representative to be on the list.
The winning works are scheduled to be displayed at Somerset House in London, the UK, in April.
The beauty of Ba Den Mountain has "caused a fever" in international media, when some famous newspapers and magazines with large readerships such as BBC, Daily Mail, The Mirror, Daily Record, Euronews and The Times praised and ranked the photo the first in the list of award-winning works. Twelve hours after posting on BBC's Instagram platform, the picture of Ba Den received more than 40,000 likes.
“This spectacular image shows Ba Den Mountain, shrouded in mist. With an elevation of 3,268ft (996m), the peak, which resembles an upside-down bowl, is the tallest in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta,” wrote the Daily Mail.
According to The Times, the highlight of the picture is the image of the tallest bronze Buddha statue in Asia located on the mountain peak amid clouds.
Dubbed the roof of southern Vietnam, the mountain is home to a number of Buddhist pagodas and temples that attract millions of tourists annually.
TB (according to VNA)