The Sony World Photography Awards have announced Chintan Shamsher Gauchan as the winner of the 2018 Nepal National Award.

The photographer from Kathmandu won the award for his photograph titled ‘Devil Inside’.

An expert panel selected the image to be the best photograph taken by a Nepali photographer submitted to the 2018 award. “I am happy”, Gauchan told NeoStuffs. “It was a candid shot that I took randomly. We were doing a shoot in Hadigaun [in Kathmandu] when I went out to check the light outside. When I came back, I saw my model staring at something – the frame was good and the lighting was beautiful – that’s how the photograph came into existence.”

The photograph that was taken in September 2017 is among the 320,000 submissions by photographers from more than 200 countries and territories.

Gauchan’s winning work will be shown at the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition in London from April 20 – May 6 and it will also be published in the 2018 Awards’ book.

Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards is the world’s most diverse photography competition.

“I named this photograph ‘Devil Inside’ because when I saw it on my computer, I realized that the model was deep in some thoughts. And of course, I had no idea what she was thinking about”, Gauchan added. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Ravi Lamichhane who got me into photography.”

“They [the organizers] will be flying me to London to receive my award”, an excited Gauchan further said.

The winners of 63 National Awards, and the 10 categories of the Awards’ Open competition were announced on Tuesday on World Photography Organisation’s website. Pranishan Rajbhandari and Ajay Maharjan bagged the second and third positions in the Nepal National Award category, respectively.

Chintan Samsher Gautam’s works can be found on his website, and his Instagram handles – @portraits_tokyo and @digital_treasure_tokyo.