Vietnamese photographers win prizes in UK contest

 Do Thanh Nhan won first prize in the ‘Food in Action’ category. His photo, ‘Waiting for Sunshine’, was taken in a traditional rice paper making village in Tay Ninh Province, southern Vietnam.

In Tay Ninh, besides visiting the famous Cao Dai Holy See (Cao Dai Great Temple), visitors also have the opportunity to enjoy the unique Trang Bang dew-wetted rice paper.

Rice paper is made from rice flour, dried in the sun and then baked before being left outside to be wetted by the dew. The rice paper is used to make spring rolls with vegetables and meat, a long-time specialty of Tay Ninh. Another version of this dish has shrimp, salt and sesame.

‘Flowers on water’ by Khanh Phan.

‘Flowers on water’ by Khanh Phan, which features a small group of women in the Mekong Delta harvesting and cleaning water lilies in a river, won the second prize in the ‘Bring Home the Harvest’ category.

The high water season from August to November in the Mekong Delta is also a season for tourism, when people come here to watch the mighty river and enjoy the specialties that are available, including water lillies. The flower is added to soups, salads and stir fry dishes.

‘Harvest of salt’ by Khanh Phan.

‘Harvest of salt’ taken at the Hon Khoi salt field in the central province of Khanh Hoa won for Khanh Phan the third-placed prize in the ‘Bring Home the Harvest’ category.

Hon Khoi Peninsula is 40 km from Nha Trang Town in Khanh Hoa Province, and is also famous for its Doc Let Beach, a major tourist destination.

The awards were recently announced by the jury via livestream because of the coronavirus pandemic. All the works selected by the judges will be exhibited at Mall Galleries, London.

The Pink Lady Food Photography was instituted in 2011 by Caroline Kenyon, founder and owner of The Food Award Company, a food photography agency. It has attracted nearly 60,000 entries so far from 77 countries. This year there were more than 9,000 works in 27 categories.