TECNO Unveils Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 Jointly with Lonely Planet

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TECNO Unveils Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 Jointly with Lonely Planet

2026-05-15 10:00 Last Updated At：10:15

Calling on TECNO CAMON users worldwide to capture real life moments under the theme "Seeing is Believing" — with global travel awards and premium prizes up for grabs

HONG KONG, May 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- TECNO, the AI-driven innovative technology brand, and Lonely Planet, the globally recognized travel guidance leader, today jointly announced the co-hosted Shot On CAMON Contest 2026, the third edition of TECNO's annual global photography competition. Rooted in a shared spirit of exploration and expression, the collaboration expands the contest beyond technology alone to celebrate the people, places and stories behind every image. Through expert co-judging, co-branded content, and photo-essay-style storytelling, TECNO and Lonely Planet aim to inspire users around the world to see more, feel more and tell richer visual stories. Three Lonely Planet photographers will contribute original imagery shot on the CAMON 50 Series, while one Lonely Planet photographer will serve on the final-round jury panel alongside TECNO's imaging team.

"Great photos are not just about equipment – they are about how deeply the photographer can immerse themselves in a destination," said Melissa Killian, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Lonely Planet. "TECNO's technology makes that immersion easier, helping users stay present, observe more closely and capture meaningful moments as they happen. We are excited to partner on Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 and look forward to seeing how photographers around the world bring their journeys to life."

Under the theme "Seeing is Believing," this year's contest runs from May 15 to October 11, 2026, inviting smartphone photographers worldwide to capture real, beautiful and unrepeatable moments using the TECNO CAMON 50 Series. In a year increasingly shaped by AI, the theme is TECNO's call to celebrate the authenticity of real life through photography, honoring diverse skin tones, fleeting emotions, and real-world observations. Even the contest's AI category starts with a real photograph, encouraging users to start from authentic observation and personal expression.

Five Creative Categories That Celebrate New Ways of Seeing

The five categories of Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 are designed to inspire different ways of seeing, encouraging participants to capture real moments, emotions and perspectives from everyday life and travel.

Faces•Unfiltered – This category celebrates authentic portraits that reflect people as they really are, capturing diverse skin tones and individuality in a quiet close-up, a candid street portrait, or a moment shared between friends.
Night•Unveiled – This category invites participants to capture the atmosphere, mystery and emotion that emerge after dark, from neon-lit streets and reflections after rain to still moonlit scenes and late-night city life.
Culture•Unscripted – This category focuses on capturing the rhythm of a place as it naturally unfolds, whether through festivals, crafts, food moments or unplanned interactions between people.
Snapshot•Unspotted (Telephoto Special) – Participants are invited to capture distant details that reveal something surprising, intimate or easily overlooked, from textures on far-off peaks to a fleeting expression within a crowd.
AI•Unimagined (AI Gallery Special) – First capture a real-world photo with a TECNO phone, then transform it into an artistic style using TECNO's AI Gallery. Both the original photograph and the AI-styled image must be submitted together. This category is designed to explore how AI can extend creative expression while keeping real-world photography as the starting point.

"'Seeing is Believing' is both a creative brief for our contestants and a reminder that the most powerful images begin with real life," said Jack Guo, General Manager of TECNO. "Through Shot On CAMON Contest 2026, we hope to inspire users around the world to observe more closely, express themselves more freely and celebrate the beauty of authentic moments through photography."

Awards, Honors and How to Enter

To recognize exceptional creativity, Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 will reward outstanding work across its major award tiers with both cash prizes and exclusive travel prizes sponsored by Lonely Planet. Selected winners will embark on a curated journey to explore the wonders — to experience is to believe, and only by witnessing can miracles truly be seen.

As rewards for the competition, one outstanding photographer will be awarded the TECNO Photography Master prize ($8,000). Additionally, there will be five winners for the Gold Prize ($3,000), five winners for the Silver Prize ($2,000), and five winners for the Bronze Prize ($1,000). Ten participants will also be selected as a TECNO Friend and will receive a CAMON 50 Series Smartphone. As an exclusive bonus, the TECNO Photography Master and the five Gold Prize winners will also be invited to a bespoke trip to the Philippines.

To enter, participants should post photos with a visible TECNO device watermark on Instagram using the hashtags #ShotOnCAMON2026 and #TECNOCAMON50Series, then submit high-resolution versions via email at shotoncamon@tecnomobile.com or through the ShotOnCAMON Gallery on TECNO's global official website. All entries must be original content and duplicate submissions will be disqualified. Winning works will be showcased in global media exhibitions, the TECNO annual photo book, and across TECNO's official platforms.

For full contest rules and details, visit shotoncamon.com or follow @tecnomobile on Instagram.

Calling on TECNO CAMON users worldwide to capture real life moments under the theme "Seeing is Believing" — with global travel awards and premium prizes up for grabs

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TECNO Unveils Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 Jointly with Lonely Planet

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TECNO Unveils Shot On CAMON Contest 2026 Jointly with Lonely Planet

Five Creative Categories That Celebrate New Ways of Seeing

Faces•Unfiltered – This category celebrates authentic portraits that reflect people as they really are, capturing diverse skin tones and individuality in a quiet close-up, a candid street portrait, or a moment shared between friends.
Night•Unveiled – This category invites participants to capture the atmosphere, mystery and emotion that emerge after dark, from neon-lit streets and reflections after rain to still moonlit scenes and late-night city life.
Culture•Unscripted – This category focuses on capturing the rhythm of a place as it naturally unfolds, whether through festivals, crafts, food moments or unplanned interactions between people.
Snapshot•Unspotted (Telephoto Special) – Participants are invited to capture distant details that reveal something surprising, intimate or easily overlooked, from textures on far-off peaks to a fleeting expression within a crowd.
AI•Unimagined (AI Gallery Special) – First capture a real-world photo with a TECNO phone, then transform it into an artistic style using TECNO's AI Gallery. Both the original photograph and the AI-styled image must be submitted together. This category is designed to explore how AI can extend creative expression while keeping real-world photography as the starting point.

Awards, Honors and How to Enter

For full contest rules and details, visit shotoncamon.com or follow @tecnomobile on Instagram.

** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **

Beijing Review: Living Archive of Global Exchange

BEIJING, May 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Journey back to 1951. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was young. Yook Kearn Wong, an eager military recruit from Guangdong Province, and his new comrades in the People's Liberation Army ventured westward through the fortress of Jiayunguan, Gansu Province, the terminus of the Great Wall, past the legendary cliffs of Dunhuang, with their magnificent muraled caves, beyond the crumbling glory of the Jade Gate (Yumen Pass), through the high plains, desert sands and yellow earth until they reached their posts at the edge of the country.

In his book At the Edge of Empire, Yook Kearn Wong's son, New York Times correspondent Edward Wong, chronicles China's far western frontier as a region defined not just by its distance from Beijing, but by its proximity to many things: to Central Asia, to history, to disparate cultures. But while Xinjiang may be the western edge of China, it is, and has long been, a center—a nexus of the movement of people and ideas and commerce across continents.

That idea stayed with me as I moved through Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with my wife and some Chinese journalist friends—north into the Ili River Valley near the border with Kazakhstan, and south into the ancient oasis city of Kuqa (Kucha). As a history-major-turned-journalist and journalism professor, I found myself seeing Xinjiang not only as a tourist destination, but as a living archive of global exchange. The region is often framed today through geopolitics or political controversy. But to understand Xinjiang fully, one must step back and see it as a crossroads of civilization for nearly two millennia.

Beyond the edge

Standing amid the ancient ruins in Kuqa, I began a conversation with my traveling companions: How far are we, I wondered, from the centers of the ancient world? Our smartphones provided instant answers. Beijing, where Marco Polo would travel, lies thousands of km to the east—roughly 3,000 km, a long but now routine journey by modern transport. Looking westward, the ancient travelers were well on their way to Baghdad, once the world's largest city, about 4,500 km away; Constantinople, the great hinge between Europe and Asia, is 5,000 km distant; and Rome, the symbolic endpoint of the ancient Silk Road in the Western imagination, is a trek of some 7,000 km.

The area now called Xinjiang became a conduit for cultural and intellectual exchange. From the west came horses, metals and artistic influences. From the east came paper, silk and technological innovations that would transform societies far beyond China. Languages mixed, religions spread and identities evolved.

Today's Xinjiang is still a midpoint in a network that connects economies and ideas across continents. As a key part of China's Belt and Road concept, Xinjiang connects the nation's commercial centers of the east with Pakistan and the Global South through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and to London and other points in Europe via the "Iron Camel Caravan," officially known as the China-Europe Railway Express. (The China-proposed Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, collectively known as the Belt and Road Initiative, aim to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes—Ed.)

Xinjiang's role in world history begins with its contrasting geography, which creates commercial corridors between societies. In the north, the Ili River Valley opens into rolling grasslands framed by the Tianshan Mountains—a landscape that feels closer to Central Asia than to east China. In winter, the mountains are stark and imposing; in summer, they give way to pastureland long used by Kazak herders. We rode horses through those mountains and hiked through the snows. It was a long way from Beijing.

In the south lies a very different world: the Tarim Basin, dominated by the vast Taklimakan Desert (the world's second largest shifting desert, behind the Sahara—Ed.). Along its edges sit oasis cities with large Uygur populations like Kuqa, which once thrived as critical stops along the Silk Road's southern routes.

Together, these landscapes created the network of passageways between East and West. Traders, pilgrims and armies moved along these corridors, linking China to Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. In Kuqa, just outside the modern city, the ruins of ancient settlements and the nearby Kizil caves offer a glimpse into this world. The murals, some faded but still dramatic, tell stories of Buddhism's arrival in China, carried along these trade routes by monks and merchants.

The power of context

As a journalist, I often consider how information travels: How stories move across borders and are reinterpreted in the process. The Silk Road was, in many ways, an early version of a transnational information network, a camel-powered Internet, if you will. Xinjiang was one of its key transmission nodes.

Over centuries, Xinjiang's history has been shaped by shifting powers—from early Indo-European communities in the Tarim Basin to Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) and Tang (618-907) expansion, and to Qing (1644-1911) and PRC consolidation.

The diversity of Xinjiang's geography and population creates dual identities: oasis and steppe, settled and nomadic. Historically, until modern times, it has never been defined by a single culture or political system. Instead, it has absorbed and reflected influences from multiple directions.

Xinjiang is often described as a frontier. But historically, it has functioned as a meeting ground. Traveling through Xinjiang earlier this year, I was struck by how these historical patterns remain visible.

In the Tianshan Mountains, herders move across winter landscapes that have supported pastoral life for generations. The setting—wide open, wind-swept, edged by mountains—felt timeless. It was easy to imagine being in the exact same setting with similar Kirgiz or Kazak herders in centuries past, following seasonal rhythms that long predate modern borders.

Kuqa's ruins and caves are reminders of a time when this was a vibrant junction in a transcontinental network. Standing there, it becomes clear that what we now think of as "globalization" has deep historical roots. Long before container ships and digital networks, goods and ideas were moving across Eurasia, linking distant societies in complex ways.

While teaching multimedia reporting, I often emphasize the importance of context—helping audiences understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. Xinjiang's history shows that today's global economy is built on patterns of exchange that stretch back thousands of years.

It also challenges simple narratives. Xinjiang is not easily categorized. It is shaped by influences from China's heartland, Central Asia and the broader Eurasian region, all layered over time.

From the enticing grasslands and rugged mountains of the north to the ancient ruins and surviving cities of the Silk Road, the region offers a legacy of movement—of people, goods and communication—and of the ways that movement has shaped, and is shaping, societies.

The author, Rick Dunham, is former co-director of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University, a veteran Washington journalist and former president of the National Press Club in the U.S.

Comments to ffli@cicgamericas.com

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