Silver lining: Rainy Afternoon by Truong Minh Dien won the 2013 CGAP Photo Contest.

WASHINGTON DC (VNS)— Truong Minh Dien of Viet Nam has won the 2013 CGAP Photo Contest for his photo Rainy Afternoon.

His photo was chosen out of a record number of 3,890 entries from professional and amateur photographers in 91 countries.

The winning photo depicts a woman transporting potatoes to a local market in Viet Nam during a downpour. The woman's earnings help feed her husband and two children.

Four other entries from Viet Nam also featured prominently among the winners and finalists.

The photo The Gold Life by Vo Chi Trung was selected as the Regional Winner for East Asia and the Pacific.

Three other Vietnamese entries were among the finalists.

The judging panel praised Dien's Rainy Afternoon for the way it thoughtfully depicted the resilience of low-income entrepreneurs in Viet Nam.

"The photo really captured a great moment," said Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, the 2010 CGAP Photo Contest Winner and a guest judge for 2013.

In addition to the compelling story behind the winning image, the judges felt that it was technically excellent.

"It takes a disciplined photographer to step back and take a picture like this," said Stelios Varias, a senior photographer and editor from Thomson Reuters and one of the four judges. "It's incredibly hard to get a good shot in the rain."

For the second consecutive year, a popular vote on CGAP.org determined a People's Choice winner.

Voters chose Talented Nesma, submitted by Mohamad Gouda of Egypt, which depicts a woman who used a microfinance loan to build a painting and embroidery business.

The 2013 Grand Prize is a US$2,000 gift certificate for photography equipment.

The judges also selected other photos from around the world as regional winners, finalists, and special mentions, which were chosen for both technical excellence and depiction of the stories and faces behind financial inclusion.

Of particular note was the South Asia regional winner, Brick Worker, submitted by Moksumul Haque of Bangladesh.

The photo captures bricks tossed in mid-air, leaving the viewer wondering what happened immediately after the picture was taken.

Photographers from over 90 countries made this the most competitive year for the CGAP Photo Contest, the eighth year of the competition. —VNS