48 winning works of the photo contest '80 years of the Heroic Army'

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army, the 80th anniversary of the Traditional Day of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, and the 35th anniversary of the National Defense Day, on December 17, in Hanoi, the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army chaired and coordinated with the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists, and the Vietnam Journalists Association to organize the award ceremony of the National Press and Artistic Photo Contest on the Vietnam People's Army and National Defense in 2024 with the theme "80 years of the Heroic Army".

The contest was launched in April 2024, aiming to contribute to promoting and affirming the correct policies and guidelines of the Party and State on military and national defense, building the Vietnam People's Army, building a strong national defense, and building a solid "people's heart position". The activity also contributes to affirming the position, role, functions and tasks of the Army; fostering and enhancing patriotism, national pride, and sense of responsibility of the entire army and people to build a strong, modern, and elite Army to meet the requirements of the task of building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation.

With two themes: Vietnam People's Army, National Defense and two types of images: art photos and press photos, the Contest opens up wide participation opportunities for professional and non-professional journalists and photographers, Vietnamese citizens living, working and studying in and outside the country; foreign citizens living, working, studying and working in Vietnam and officers and soldiers of the People's Armed Forces.

Since April 2024, the Propaganda Department (General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army) has coordinated with agencies and units to organize press conferences, promote and disseminate information, creating positive media effects for the Contest; coordinated with the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists to issue notices and rules of the Contest, disseminate information and set up a separate website for the Contest called "80 years of the Heroic Army" to expand information and receive entries.

The Organizing Committee of the contest received 4,502 entries, including 1,601 press photos and 2,901 art photos from more than 1,400 authors from 63 provinces and cities nationwide. 80 art photos and press photos were selected to participate in the exhibition and the Final Round. The Final Round Council continued to judge and select the 48 best works to award prizes for 2 categories of press photos and art photos, each category including: 2 First prizes, 4 Second prizes, 6 Third prizes, 12 Encouragement prizes.

Congratulating the authors and groups of authors whose works won the Contest and participated in the exhibition at events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army, the 80th anniversary of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, and the 35th anniversary of the National Defense Day, Lieutenant General Do Xuan Tung, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, emphasized that the authors and groups of authors have closely followed the theme, rules, and regulations of the contest; invested effort, intelligence, and created visual works rich in content and approach; portrayed and highlighted the portrait of the soldier, the image of Uncle Ho's soldiers in performing the functions of "fighting army", "working army", "production labor army". Many emotional moments, touching people's hearts about the beauty of soldiers in combat readiness, training, studying, working and daily life have been recorded.

According to the Organizing Committee, the contest was a great success from the leadership, direction to the organization, coordination, cooperation, and judging, especially the quality of the entries and the winning works. The winning photos demonstrated the spirit and will of our army and people, while conveying the historical values ​​and heroic traditions of the Vietnam People's Army; arousing patriotism, national pride and a sense of responsibility to protect the Fatherland.