TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —Two Taiwanese photographers have been nominated in this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.

The nominees of the international photography competition were announced Tuesday. Taiwanese photographers Ace Wu (吳永森) and Kuo Tzu-yang (郭子揚) both earned nominations in separate categories of the “Open” competition, and now sit among some of the best photographers in the world.

Sony World Photography Awards is one of the most prestigious international photography championships. It constitutes four separate competitions, namely: Professional, Open, Youth and Student.

The list of nominees participating in the Open competition—in which Wu and Kuo entered—was announced Tuesday alongside the list of those entering the Youth Competition.

Open rewards the best single image captured by a photographer, as opposed to a body of outstanding work, which is rewarded in the Professional category. Open comprises 10 subcategories: Architecture, Culture, Creative, Motion, Landscape, Natural World & Wildlife, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel.

As an underwater photographer, Wu submitted his photograph “Intense”, which depicts the Pacific ecosystem of the sockeye salmon, in the Natural World & Wildlife category. Kuo’s piece “Under the Moon” captures the three battlement-like peaks of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in Italy’s Sexten Dolomites mountain range. His piece was submitted under the Landscape category.

The competition this year is fierce, CNA reports, as more applicants than ever before put forward their works. 326,997 individual photographs were registered by photographers from 199 different countries.

The category winners will be announced on Feb. 26. All winning photographs will be on display in London’s Somerset House between April 18 and May 6.



Kuo Tzu-yang's nominated photograph "Under the Moon" (CNA image)