Images Showcasing This Year's Most Influential Scientific Experiments
The Wellcome Photography Prize, an annual competition celebrating powerful images that capture health, science, and medicine, has announced its top entries for 2025. Three winning photographers—Sujata Setia, Mithail Afrige Chowdhury, and Steve Gschmeissner—have each been awarded £10,000 for their compelling projects that reflect how science and health shape lives in diverse, personal ways.
Sujata Setia, a UK-based photographer, won for *A Thousand Cuts*, a storytelling series portraying survivors of domestic abuse in South Asian communities. Using the Indian paper-cutting technique sanjhi, symbolic patterns overlay portraits, preserving anonymity while conveying each subject's story. The work delves into the long-term mental and physical health impacts of domestic violence and was developed in partnership with the UK charity SHEWISE.
Mithail Afrige Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi documentary and street photographer, captured the everyday realities of climate migration, highlighting how displacement affects health and wellbeing amidst environmental crises.
Steve Gschmeissner, a UK-based electron microscopy specialist and science photographer, presented images delving into microscopic processes underpinning heart disease, revealing the unseen scientific and medical details that influence cardiovascular health.
These three winners stand out from over 100 countries' submissions, and alongside them, 22 other finalists received prizes. The top 25 entries will be exhibited at London's Francis Crick Institute from 17 July to 18 October 2025, freely accessible to the public.
The exhibition showcases photography that intersects health, science, and human experience through striking solo images, storytelling series, and scientific imaging. Other categories in this year's competition include 'Solo photography' and 'A storytelling series'.
Highlights of the exhibition include Lucy Holland's "Blooming Barrier", Steve Gschmeissner's "Cholesterol in the liver", and Amaia Alcalde Anton's "From butterflies to humans". Another highlight is a journey to the remote Peruvian Andes, where Indigenous farmers blend traditional knowledge with modern science to tackle water pollution.
One of the exhibition's most notable images is the first non-invasive image of microplastics beneath human skin, created by P Stephen Patrick and Olumide Ogunlade. Other noteworthy entries include Marina Vitaglione's "Brixton Road, Lambeth, South London", Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottawa's "Organoid", Georgie Wileman's "This Is Endometriosis - Self Five Years On 2014-2022", Giacomo d'Orlando's "Nemo's garden", Sandipani Chattopadhyay's "Searching for Life", and Alexandru Popescu's "Beautiful Disaster".
Winners of the competition will be announced on 16 July 2025, preceding the public exhibition of the winning images at London's Francis Crick Institute. The biomedical imaging category offers a unique look at the aesthetics of science, allowing viewers to see medical conditions in amazing detail.
In summary, the top entries for the 2025 Wellcome Photography Prize spotlight powerful global health challenges including domestic abuse, climate-induced displacement, and cardiovascular disease at microscopic levels, blending artistic expression with scientific inquiry and social realities. The free public exhibition at London's Francis Crick Institute from 17 July to 18 October showcases this intersection of health, science, and human experience.
- Sujata Setia's winning project, 'A Thousand Cuts', sheds light on the long-term health impacts of domestic violence in South Asian communities, using the Indian paper-cutting technique sanjhi.
- Mithail Afrige Chowdhury's entries underscore the link between climate migration, health, and wellbeing, focusing on individuals impacted by environmental crises.
- Steve Gschmeissner's work, presented in the competition, delves into microscopic processes influencing heart disease, offering a glimpse into the unseen scientific and medical details shaping cardiovascular health.
- The exhibition at London's Francis Crick Institute, featuring the top 25 entries, offers an exploration of health, science, and human experience through various artistic and scientific forms.
- The Wellcome Photography Prize competition categories include 'Solo photography' and 'A storytelling series', allowing photographers to present diverse perspectives on health and science.
- Notable entries in the competition encompass a wide range of topics, such as microplastics beneath human skin, traditional farming in the Peruvian Andes, endometriosis, organoids, and the search for life in extreme environments.
- The winners of the 2025 Wellcome Photography Prize highlight pressing global health issues, like domestic abuse, climate-induced displacement, and cardiovascular disease, while merging artistic expression with scientific inquiry and social realities.
