Covering all areas of life, the flow of events

In 2024, the Press Moments Photo Award organized by the Journalists and Public Opinion Newspaper under the direction of the Vietnam Journalists Association has entered its 6th season. This year's award attracted the participation of many authors from many newspapers and magazines both at the central and local levels.

Journalist Tran Lan Anh - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journalist and Public Opinion Newspaper said: "The Journalist and Public Opinion Newspaper continues to organize the annual photo contest with the expectation that it will be one of the "meeting places" and "playgrounds for press photography" at the national level, attracting more press photojournalists from all press agencies across the country, keeping up with the trend of modern press photography, discovering and honoring press photography talents.

And beyond expectations, this year's Award continues to attract a large number of reporters and journalists from central and local press agencies to respond and participate actively. In a short period of time, the Award Organizing Committee has received nearly 400 works including single photos and photo series with the number of up to thousands of photos, recording outstanding moments of social life in 2023 and the first 9 months of 2024... This number is nearly double last year, truly a promising start for the new season - "Press Moments 2024".

It is worth mentioning that not only in terms of quantity, this year's season, according to the Jury, is a season with very good quality. Mr. Nguyen Duc Loi - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association, Head of the Jury, commented: "It can be said that after each season, with the increasingly large participation of photojournalists nationwide, the quality of the works submitted to participate this year is very good. Many photographers have captured valuable moments at important and outstanding current events, politics, life - society, there are even works that made the Jury extremely emotional when judging, such as the work that won the special prize this year, which received absolute consensus"...

It can be said that with nearly 400 submitted works, converging diverse perspectives on life, bringing this year's season more rich and impressive colors. In each moment of the photos of the participating and winning photojournalists, it seems that the events of the past year are rushing back, pulling the public back to the emotions of the moment the event is taking place extremely vividly... That is not easy to come by, but it has come to this year's season with the convergence of the spirit of dedication, choice of subject and professionalism of the photographers.

Engage in every hot spot…

The works generally met the requirements set by the Organizing Committee, with more quantity, improved quality and importantly, the commitment to every hot spot of the event was the key to creating those "bright spots". According to journalist Nguyen Thang - Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Pictorial Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Jury, the criteria for a quality work are the subject, information and technique... Many works achieved satisfaction from the judges when they met those criteria. It is worth noting that the works highlighted typical bright spots in important events of the country, many works demonstrated the dedication and bravery of photojournalists as well as conveyed impressive and emotional stories.

Sharing the same view on that commitment, journalist and photographer Ho Sy Minh - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists also assessed that this year, authors and journalists have invested more, traveled far and wide, and worked hard to reach hot spots. Many photo collections were jointly developed by groups of authors, they were well prepared, worked responsibly and wholeheartedly at major events... "It can be said that the Award achieved many "bright spots", with more quantity, richer topics, and all current issues of the country were more fully reflected... In particular, the events through the perspective of the press have conveyed the event's message to the public in a complete and comprehensive manner..." - Mr. Ho Sy Minh emphasized.

It must also be recognized that the end of 2023 to the first 9 months of 2024 are the periods of many hot events, key events of the country, many major events that have never appeared such as: State funeral of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, storms, floods, landslides, implementation of major projects... Hot spots will pass without journalists who dedicate themselves to work and keep them like loyal secretaries, so when receiving nearly 400 works of the authors, we appreciate their tireless efforts even more.

Every moment in life is fully reproduced in each photojournalistic product, carrying with it the dedication to hardship, the charge into danger, the dedication, the delicacy and the responsibility for the profession. Behind each work is the spirit of responsible work, the courage, and the close adherence to events of journalists in the flow of timely, accurate and humane news.

Of course, besides the highlights, the judges also worry that the authors still choose the safe solution when sending many photo reports and photo series but lack single photos. There are events that if more care is taken and emotions and valuable details are put into a photo, it will definitely be a better quality moment. Therefore, the Organizing Committee still hopes that there will be impressive single photos, both realistic and with more creative shooting angles for the new season.

It can be said that this year's entries in all three categories: Current Affairs, Social Life, Sports seem to have covered all areas of life and the flow of events. This season with positive comments is enough to believe that the journey to continue writing the story of Press Moments 2024 will certainly continue to bring many surprises at the Awards Ceremony at the end of this year.

Some photos that touched readers' hearts in the 2024 Press Moment photo contest

Cloud River