A Thousand Cuts © Sujata Setia
The 2025 Wellcome Photography Prize highlights global health challenges through powerful images spanning domestic abuse, climate migration and microscopic disease
Three photographers have been awarded top honours at the Wellcome Photography Prize 2025, announced on Wednesday 16 July, 2025, at the Francis Crick Institute in London. The annual prize, now in its 28th year, recognises compelling visual storytelling at the intersection of health, science and human experience.
Sujata Setia, Mithail Afrige Chowdhury and Steve Gschmeissner each received £10,000 for winning entries that explore themes including domestic abuse, climate displacement and cardiovascular health at a microscopic level.
In the Storytelling Series category, UK-based artist Sujata Setia was recognised for A Thousand Cuts, a portrait project developed in collaboration with South Asian women who have experienced domestic abuse. The photographs incorporate the traditional Indian paper-cutting technique sanjhi to preserve the subjects’ anonymity while highlighting their personal stories.
The series was produced in partnership with the UK charity SHEWISE. Each portrait is a composite of photographic imagery and testimony, overlaid with symbolic patterns reflecting the subjects’ lived experiences. The project explores how violence can leave long-term impacts on mental and physical health across generations.


Bangladeshi photographer Mithail Afrige Chowdhury won the Striking Solo Image category for Urban Travel, a staged photograph showing a mother and daughter having a rooftop picnic in Dhaka. The image was taken in a city where public green space has been reduced due to rapid urbanisation.
According to Chowdhury, the photo is part of a larger body of work examining climate migration, public health and urban sustainability. Nearly half of Dhaka’s population has been displaced by extreme weather events, and the image reflects how environmental change affects daily life and childhood experiences in the city. The photograph was produced in 2023 and selected from hundreds of entries submitted to this year’s prize.
Steve Gschmeissner, a UK-based electron microscopy specialist, was awarded in the Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging category for Cholesterol in the Liver, a colourised scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image.


The image shows cholesterol crystals forming inside lipid-rich liver cells. According to researchers, these crystals can contribute to heart disease and stroke by damaging blood vessels. Gschmeissner’s work, which has been published in medical journals, textbooks, and cultural media, visualises microscopic changes in the body linked to broader public health outcomes.
An exhibition featuring the top 25 entries is now open to the public at the Francis Crick Institute, running from 17 July to 18 October 2025. Curated by Laurie Britton Newell and Ligaya Salazar, the show includes work spanning documentary photography, scientific imaging, drone footage and alternative processes such as cyanotypes.
The 2025 prize received submissions from over 100 countries, with finalists representing 18 nations including Bangladesh, Brazil, France, India, Uganda, the UK and the US. The judging panel was chaired by Melanie Keen, Director of the Wellcome Collection, and included professionals from photography, science, public health and journalism.


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