Summary
- TECNO has announced the Shot On CAMON 2026 winners.
- More than 13,000 entries came from over 40 countries.
- @dominic_films won the $8,000 grand prize.
- The gallery includes 13 conventional photographs and three separately awarded AI-assisted works.
A black-and-white photograph capturing a fleeting moment of freedom on a Lagos beach has won the $8,000 top prize in TECNO’s international Shot On CAMON 2026 smartphone photography contest.
The third edition, organized with Lonely Planet, attracted more than 13,000 entries from over 40 countries. TECNO announced 16 winners on November 2, 2026: one overall winner, 12 awards across four photography categories, and three additional awards in a separate AI-assisted category.
The total cash prize pool reached $38,000. Photography entries were shot on TECNO CAMON smartphones; the 13 images below show just how many different stories creators can tell with devices from the same phone family.
The grand prize: Weightless Voyager
Nigerian photographer @dominic_films earned the TECNO Photography Master title with “Weightless Voyager,” shot in Lagos on a CAMON 50 Pro. The subject appears suspended above the water: low-angle light and precise timing give the frame its force. The image also earned the $8,000 grand prize.
Portraits: Faces · Unfiltered
Three distinct approaches to portraiture, each with a different idea of what makes a face worth photographing:
The Gold award went to “Unvarnished” by @_shotbykene, a carefully staged Nigerian portrait built around an intense expression and restrained composition.
The Silver award went to “A Glimpse of Joy” by @dzxl_mxjid, capturing a child’s smile in the Philippines after the rain.
The Bronze award went to “The Horse Guard” by @7ustalvin, a quiet moment with an elderly woman during a traditional ceremony in Indonesia.
Culture: Culture · Unscripted
Here the photographers looked at ceremonies, craft and daily work. The energy of a celebration sits alongside two much quieter images.
The Gold winner “A Dance of Faith” by @mlpadecio captures performers at a traditional festival in Cebu, Philippines, with color and movement across the frame.
In the Silver winner “Harvesting the Lilies” by @kolkatarchobiwala_, a worker collects water lilies in a West Bengal wetland as droplets hang in the air.
The Bronze winner “Threads of a Master” by @reuflores shows Dominico Panela, a third-generation Ilocano weaver, working at a 120-year-old wooden loom.
Night: Night · Unveiled
These three winners approached darkness in completely different ways — from trails of light to a single beam and the silhouettes of shadow theater. Smartphone shooting after dark has also featured in other competitions, including the Mobile Nighttime Photography category at Capture the Dark 2026.
The Gold winner “Painting Night” by @amazing_haywhyclicks_ uses a long exposure to draw rings of light around a silhouetted figure.
The Silver winner “Light Beyond Darkness” by @tanvirahmed_1415, photographed in Bangladesh, centers on a blue beam cutting through the night sky.
The Bronze winner “Theater of Shadows” captures a traditional shadow-puppet performance in Malaysia, using illuminated colors and strong silhouettes.
Snapshots: Snapshot · Unspotted
Here composition has to keep up with the unexpected. A jump, a child and a goose, children playing with old tires: the difference is often the instant the photographer presses the shutter.
The Gold winner “The Courage to Let Go” by @30secondtothemoon freezes a young skateboarder at the peak of a jump in Jakarta, with his shadow completing the composition.
The Silver winner “A Playful Moment” by @aungkyawzaw.ig places a child and a white goose at opposite ends of a wooden seesaw.
The Bronze winner “Childhoods” by @baganphoto captures children playing with old motorcycle tires in warm evening light.
The three additional AI · Unimagined awards
TECNO also recognized three works in a separate category where a photograph taken on a CAMON device is transformed using its AI Art Gallery tool. These works are not part of the 13 conventional photographs highlighted above: they are a distinct type of image and are presented separately.
The Gold winner “Where Hope Still Perches” uses birds and barbed wire to explore freedom and restriction.
The Silver winner “The Spiral Within” explores curves and geometry to create an unusual visual narrative.
The Bronze winner “Onward” reinterprets an urban photograph as a composition inspired by cubist painting.
The complete collection is available in TECNO’s official gallery. Anyone following mobile photography competitions can compare these images with the iPhone Photography Awards 2025 winners, where different phones and styles also produced very different results.
What we think
Of these 13 photographs, the ones that stay with us are not necessarily the most technically elaborate. “A Glimpse of Joy” depends on a smile and good light, “The Courage to Let Go” on a moment that cannot easily be repeated, and “Weightless Voyager” on a clear decision about what should remain inside the frame.
A contest limited to one smartphone family takes at least part of the usual brand-and-gear debate out of the picture. What comes through instead is how photographers use light, distance, motion and, above all, their access to the communities around them. That makes this kind of competition worth following.
Keeping the AI category separate matters too. An artistic transformation can have visual merit, but we would not judge it by the same standards as a photograph of an unrepeatable moment. Presenting the two separately helps us see what each creator actually achieved.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there 13 photographs if TECNO announced 16 winners?
The 13 comprise the grand prize winner and 12 awards across four conventional photography categories. The other three awards belong to the separate AI · Unimagined category.
Could photographers enter with any smartphone?
No. The competition rules required entries in the photography categories to be shot using TECNO CAMON-series smartphones.
