Sacred Realms of Gold

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Martin Gray, United States
• Studio
  World Pilgrimage Guide
• Website
  https://sacredsites.com/

From the Himalayan stupas of Nepal to the radiant mosques of Iran, Sacred Realms of Gold is a photographic journey through sacred sites where gold transcends ornament to become divine metaphor. Across cultures, gold has long symbolized purity, immortality, and the light of the sacred. In this series, photographer and cultural anthropologist Martin Gray captures places where spiritual devotion is gilded in gold—shimmering with reverence, memory, and myth. Each image invites us to contemplate how the sacred is not only seen but felt, where light meets faith in every glint of gold.

Martin Gray is a world-renowned photographer, cultural documentarian, and scholar of sacred traditions with over 40 years of experience photographing sacred sites in more than 106 countries. His work is dedicated to illuminating the spiritual, architectural, and cultural significance of pilgrimage places and sacred landscapes around the world. As founder of the World Pilgrimage Guide(sacredsites.com),the largest online archive of sacred site photography and writing, his work has reached over 100 million global viewers.