Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 opens with £52,000 in prizes
The Wellcome Photography Prize, now open for entries, seeks visual stories of
human experience, hope, and resilience across four core areas of focus – mental
health, infectious disease, climate & health and discovery research – and the
areas in which they intersect. It explores health across all the scales of life, from
molecular biology to the impact of disease on entire communities.
3-minute read
3-minute read
The Wellcome Photography Prize is returning in full for the first time since Covid-19, with £52,000 in prizes and a central London gallery exhibition showcasing top submissions.
The international prize, which is free to enter from anywhere in the world, celebrates captivating stories of health, science, and human experience, bringing together global perspectives.
Entries are now open across three categories, including the return of a scientific and medical imagery category – a nod to the Wellcome Image Awards, which ran from 1997 to 2018. For this category, judges will be looking for skillful use of imaging techniques that inspire audiences to visualise discovery science in new, creative and thoughtful ways – celebrating the wonder of the research process itself alongside human storytelling.
Between the former Wellcome Image Awards and the now-running Wellcome Photography Prize, the prize combines a 27-year legacy of using visual storytelling to bring health, science and medicine to life.
Submissions are encouraged from anyone – whether they be professional or amateur photographers, photojournalists, researchers, scientists, or clinicians. The category descriptions are as follows:
Striking solo photography: A single image that captivates people, stirs imaginations, and starts conversations.
A storytelling series: A series of three to five photographs that unpacks a narrative in greater depth or explores different perspectives.
The marvels of scientific and medical imaging: A single image, taken using a scientific or medical imaging technique, that captures the wonder of life sciences.
This year, in a new development, the top 25 entries will all win a cash prize. The three category winners will receive a prize of £10,000 each, and the remaining 22 will each receive £1,000.
Prizes will be presented at an awards ceremony in summer 2025, followed by the top 25 entries going on show at a public exhibition in a central London venue, with details to be announced soon.
The exhibition will also showcase the work of young people taking part in a South African community storytelling project. Run by Eh!woza and sponsored by the Wellcome Photography Prize, the workshops in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, aim to equip participants with the skills and technology needed to develop photographic explorations of lived experiences and perspectives of pressing health challenges.
The 2021 single-image winner was ‘Untangling,’ Jameisha Prescod’s picture of herself knitting to block out her depression during the Covid-19 UK lockdown.
“Winning the prize was a beautiful affirmation. I captured a self-portrait of me knitting in a messy bedroom while dealing with depression during the Covid-19 lockdowns. My photographic style is quite raw and stripped back, and sharing that photograph was quite a vulnerable act,” Prescod said.
“I wasn't sure how people would react, but winning the prize allowed me to feel more comfortable in my practice and taught me that it's okay to be vulnerable out loud."
Other category winners showed a man struggling to survive in the aftermath of a cyclone, a fantasy of depression as a sinister, ever-present fish, and a community whose fertile wetlands have turned to desert.
Entries to the Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 are accepted via Wellcome’s website, which includes full terms and conditions for entry. The deadline for entries is 14 January 2025. The website, along with Wellcome Photography Prize newsletter and Instagram channels, will update with more information on the judging panel and the summer 2025 exhibition soon.
