Photo of cloud-covered Buddha statue in southern Vietnam wins Sony global contest

By Hoang Phong February 6, 2024 | 07:24 pm PT

A photo taken by Tran Tuan Viet shows a Buddha statue standing amid clouds on Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh Province.

Tran Tuan Viet is one of 54 National Award winners at this year's Sony World Photography Awards for his picture of a mountain-top Buddha statue standing amid clouds.

There were 415,000 entries from 74,000 photographers from 206 countries.

Viet said he took the photo last October when he took a cable car at dawn to go cloud hunting up Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh Province, the tallest in southern Vietnam at 986 m.

Dubbed the roof of southern Vietnam, it is home to a number of Buddhist pagodas and temples.

The 54 winners received Sony digital imaging equipment and their works will be exhibited at Somerset House in London, the U.K., next April.

The entries were judged anonymously by a panel of judges.

Since its inception in 2007, the Sony World Photography Awards has proven to be a platform for some of the world's most evocative photography.