The winners of this year's Prix de le Photographie Paris were announced, with Miaoli-based photographer Tzeng Chin-fa (曾進發) winning one gold prize for his series of works "Water Dance (水中舞蹈)," along with eight bronze prizes.

Prix de la Photographie, Paris is known as the largest photography competition in Europe. Last year, Tzeng was awarded one gold and one silver prizes for his series of remastered photographs of early Taiwanese miners. This year, his "Water Dance" series, which captured the graceful postures of gorgeously dressed dancers under water, won Gold in Advertising/Fashion category.

Tzeng pointed out that in recent years, shooting underwater images has been very popular that even many newcomers are eager to take wedding pictures under water, and it can be a great challenge for both models and photographers.

After diving into an open-air pool, the dancers had to hold their breath and start to dance. Tzeng would use his continuous Auto-Focus (AF-C) to capture dance postures through the hollowed-out glass window on the wall of the pool. In order to capture the effects of natural light and shadow, as well as the transparency and dreamy aesthetics of the water, flash cannot be used. The photographs were captured during fine weather over the course of two years of which eight were chosen to be submitted to the competition.

In addition, one of Tzeng's works that had been awarded the bronze prize was "Rarely See Taiwan Snow Galaxy (難得一見的台灣雪地銀河)," which was shot at four on a snowy morning on Hehuan Mountain with a view of the Milky Way, conveying the beauty of Taiwan’s mountains.

Moreover, to convey the ingenuity of Taiwan's food culture, "Creative colorful Malao (創意七彩麻荖)" captured the fusion of Chinese and Western ingredients such as marshmallows and chocolate beans in the modern food industry, turning traditional food offerings to Tian Gong (the God of Heaven) into colorful desserts. Tzeng pointed out that the food industry has developed 20 additional flavors for the sweet "Malao," which traditionally contains rice, peanut powder, or sesame seeds.