A Sea of Lanterns, an Endless Night: Hu Yi Ru Illuminates Faith and Urban Memory
At the World Grand Prix Photography Awards 2026 Autumn Season, Hu Yi Ru received the Platinum Award in Architectural & Urban Photography – Night Photography for 燈海朝天・夜未央 (A Sea of Lanterns, an Endless Night). Photographed during Taiwan’s Lunar New Year celebrations, the image brings together temple architecture, festive lanterns and the movement of traffic after dark.
Using an elevated viewpoint and slow shutter speed, Hu layers traces of modern city life with the enduring visual language of religious celebration. The resulting nightscape reflects both the energy of the present and the continuity of tradition.
Interview
What is the story behind this award-winning photograph?
Hu Yi Ru: I made the photograph during the Lunar New Year, when temples in Taiwan were decorated with lanterns. Their arrangement inspired me to photograph the scene from above, using a slow shutter speed to bring the movement of traffic into the image.
What creative or technical challenges did you encounter?
Hu Yi Ru: Initially, I intended only to photograph the temple and its lanterns. While shooting, I realised that a longer exposure could introduce more movement and emotional atmosphere, so I developed the image around that possibility.
How do you balance technique with artistic expression?
Hu Yi Ru: Technique allows the lantern trails, architectural layers and deep blue and purplish-red sky to come together. But the photograph gains its soul when viewers can sense faith, time and human feeling within the lights.
What do you hope viewers take away from the photograph?
Hu Yi Ru: I hope people feel the wishes for peace, the warmth of community and the traditions passed between generations. Even in the speed of contemporary life, these rituals retain their importance. Cities may change, but faith continues to burn brightly.
What role does photography play in today’s world?
Hu Yi Ru: Photography does more than document appearances. It preserves the memory of an era and communicates emotion and culture. When an image creates resonance or prompts reflection, it becomes a bridge connecting past, present and future.
Editor’s Note
Hu Yi Ru’s night photograph draws its expressive power from two kinds of movement: the circulation of a contemporary city and the longer continuity of cultural practice. Lanterns and traffic trails share the frame without collapsing into the same meaning.
The Platinum Award recognises a work in which long exposure serves more than a technical effect. Light becomes a way of expressing collective memory, suggesting that urban change and inherited belief can coexist in a single luminous scene.
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