Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 winners announced

Wellcome unveiled the winners of its 2025 Photography Prize at a ceremony held at the Francis Crick Institute in London. Three outstanding image makers, UK-based artist Sujata Setia, Bangladeshi documentary and street photographer Mithail Afrige Chowdhury, and UK-based electron microscopy specialist and science photographer Steve Gschmeissner, were each awarded a £10,000 prize. The winning images reflect how science and health shape people’s lives in complex and deeply personal ways, from the hidden toll of domestic abuse to the everyday realities of climate migration, to the microscopic processes that underpin heart disease.

Now in its 28th year, the Wellcome Photography Prize celebrates compelling imagery at the intersection of science, health and human experience. From documentary photography to microscopy and medical imaging, it highlights diverse perspectives on global health and the vital role of visual storytelling in creating a healthier future.

At the ceremony, the remaining finalists were each presented with a £1,000 prize, with a total of £52,000 awarded. The event was hosted by Professor Danielle George CBE, engineer, astrophysicist, science communicator and television presenter.

The top 25 entries are on display in the Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 exhibition, which is free and open to the public at the Francis Crick Institute, running from 17 July to 18 October 2025.

Lara Clements, Associate Director, Engagement, Wellcome says: “The Wellcome Photography Prize offers image-makers a platform to showcase the impact of science and health on lives around the world. This year’s winning works stood out not only for their technical accomplishment, but for the care and collaboration behind them. Sujata Setia’s portraits raised powerful questions around dignity, confidentiality and sensitivity. Mithail Afrige Chowdhury’s image exemplified the value of being embedded in the community and explored themes of adaptation, illusion and fantasy in a compelling way. Steve Gschmeissner’s biomedical image impressed us with its precision and raised important questions about how scientific imagery is shared and understood by the public. We hope audiences will find the winners’ work moving, educational and inspiring, and enjoy the full exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute.”

The Winners

In the Storytelling Series category, Sujata Setia was recognised for A Thousand Cuts, a deeply collaborative portrait project developed with survivors of domestic abuse within South Asian communities. Each image is a composite of personal testimony, visual symbolism, and traditional craft. Setia worked with the women and with the charity SHEWISE to create portraits that protected anonymity without erasing identity, applying the Indian paper-cutting technique sanjhi to overlay each photograph. The results are intimate, powerful reflections on generational trauma, silence, survival, and the politics of representation. From the account of a woman forced into marriage twice by her father and left with lasting PTSD, to a mother determined to break the cycle of violence for her daughter, the series captures how abuse can become ingrained and normalised, and how art can offer a means of reclaiming narrative.

Sujata Setia says: “This is a monumental recognition. A Thousand Cuts being selected for Wellcome Photography Prize affirms that health cannot be separated from the histories that shape it. And that domestic abuse is never a singular event; it leaves a direct, trans-generational imprint on health. As a child who grew up in a home where violence was a daily occurrence, I carry that trauma like another limb. This recognition validates not just my story, but the invisible, intangible, yet deeply scarring legacy of gender-based abuse. Domestic abuse is one of the most widespread global crimes; and yet remains among the least publicly acknowledged health crises. I hope this moment becomes a catalyst for deeper dialogue and scholarship around the interrelation between domestic abuse and health. That is our collective hope.”

Mithail Afrige Chowdhury was awarded the Striking Solo Photography prize for Urban Travel, a deceptively gentle image of a mother and daughter on a rooftop picnic in Dhaka. With few parks left in the city due to rapid urbanisation, this staged moment, a simple attempt to give a child a taste of nature, becomes an act of resilience. Nearly half of Dhaka’s population today are climate migrants, displaced by increasingly extreme weather, and Chowdhury’s work highlights the everyday consequences of these shifts: the loss of green space, of childhood rituals, of breath. The photograph is tender, composed, and yet filled with tension, a portrait of care and adaptation under invisible pressures.

Mithail Afrige Chowdhury says: “When I got the news, the first thing I did was charge my camera—not to take a photo, but to restart something I thought I’d lost. I won’t dwell on personal or professional hardships, but this moment means more than I can say. I made this image two years ago, as part of a major project on climate change, urban sustainability, and public health .Then life intervened, and fear slowly pulled me away from the work I loved. But now, I can wake up with an objective. Because someone has my back. And that makes all the difference. Awards can feel technical but this recognition from Wellcome feels deeply human.”

The winner of The Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging was announced as Steve Gschmeissner, whose electron microscopy image Cholesterol in the Liver reveals cholesterol crystals (shown in blue) forming inside lipid-laden liver cells (purple). These microscopic shifts, invisible to the naked eye, can have deadly consequences: when cholesterol hardens from liquid to crystal, it damages blood vessels and contributes to heart disease and strokes. Gschmeissner’s colourised SEM image transforms this biological process into something visually striking, part data, part artwork. With a career spanning over four decades, and more than 10,000 images published in scientific journals, stamp collections, fashion collaborations, and music albums, his work exemplifies how imaging can bridge science and culture.

Steve Gschmeissner says: “When I discovered that Wellcome had reintroduced the Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging category, I was delighted to enter such a prestigious competition. I was thrilled to be shortlisted, and winning first prize is undoubtedly one of the highlights of my 50-year career of trying to bring the wonders of the microscopic world to all.”

This year’s prize drew submissions from over 100 countries. The Top 25 entries featured over 30 individuals from 18 countries, spanning Bangladesh, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Myanmar, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Uganda, the UK, USA and beyond.

The winners were selected by an international judging panel comprising leading voices from photography, science, health and journalism. The panel was chaired by Melanie Keen, Director of Wellcome Collection, and included Caroline Hunter, Picture Editor at The Guardian; Daniella Zalcman, Photographer and Founder of Women Photograph; Benjamin Ryan, Independent Science Journalist; Elizabeth Wathuti, Environmental and Climate Activist; Esmita Charani, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town; Helen Fisher, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at King’s College London; Noah Green, Science Educator at the Beautiful Biology Initiative; and Mark Lythgoe, Director of the UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging.

Wellcome Photography Prize Exhibition

Curated by Laurie Britton Newell and Ligaya Salazar, the Wellcome Photography Prize exhibition features images that reflect a wide spectrum of health experiences, from everyday routines to global challenges. Using techniques such as portraiture, cyanotypes, drone photography, and light and electron microscopy, the image makers show how health is lived, documented and researched around the world.

Many of the works respond to Wellcome’s core focus areas, mental health, climate and health, infectious disease and discovery research. Together, they reveal how these issues overlap and take shape in different cultural and geographic contexts. The result is a layered and often unexpected portrait of health today, told through voices and perspectives that are frequently overlooked.

Among this year’s highlights are Marks of Majesty: Vanessa by Julia Comita and Stephanie Francis, a portrait honouring the life and choices of a person impacted by breast cancer who opted for aesthetic flat closure, challenging assumptions around gender, illness and identity. Beautiful Disaster by Alexandru Radu Popescu shows a lake of toxic mining waste in Romania that continues to expand each year, an image of both striking beauty and environmental damage. Resilience Artist by Pyaephyo Thetpaing captures a craftsman in Myanmar who creates lacquerware using his foot, offering a broader reflection on health, disability and the role of cultural tradition in healing.

In the scientific imaging category, Ice and Fire Chronics by Ingrid Augusto, Kildare Rocha de Miranda and Vânia da Silva Vieira shows the structure of the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which affects millions across the Americas. Blooming Barrier by Lucy Holland presents goblet cells inside the gut of a child with Hirschsprung’s disease, offering insight into how cell structures influence lifelong digestive health. From Butterflies to Humans by Amaia Alcalde Anton reveals the brain of a butterfly mid-metamorphosis, part of a study into neurogenesis with implications for human brain development.

In addition to the Top 25 entries, the exhibition also features Things We Left Unseen, a youth-led photography project developed by Cape Town-based public health organisation Eh!woza. Created in collaboration with young people in the township of Khayelitsha, the project explores health, stigma, and daily life through the eyes of a generation growing up with high HIV and TB burdens, but also with hope and agency.

The exhibition is hosted at the Francis Crick Institute, reflecting a shared commitment to making science more visible through culture.

Ali Bailey, Director of Communications and Public Engagement at the Francis Crick Institute, said: “We are delighted to host the top images from the Wellcome Photography Prize, showcasing the power of visual storytelling in health and science. The images explore a number of themes that resonate with Crick research, from the health effects of air pollution to neurogenesis. We hope visitors will be moved by the stories behind these incredible photos and also inspired by how beautiful science can be.”