This image shows something you wouldn't expect to see – and it's among the winners of this year's Wellcome Photography Prize

The Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 has announced its winners. The awarded frames celebrate photography that lives at the intersection of science, health, human experience, and speak volumes.

The winners were selected across three categories: Stiking Single Image, Storytelling, and The Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging. The awarded images range from abstract, close-ups, to documentary photography and staged portraits. From stories of domestic abuse, captured with care and anonymity through techniques like Indian paper-cutting, to climate migration seen through a mother's determination to give her child a taste of nature in the middle of an urban jungle, to the hidden danger of cholesterol revealed in stunning medical imaging.

If you'd like to explore all the shortlisted finalists, visit the Wellcome Photography Prize's website. All Top 25 entries are also on display in a major public exhibition at the Manby Gallery in the Francis Crick Institute, London, from 17 July to 18 October 2025.

But now, let's take a moment to explore the powerful messages behind the three winning images…

Striking Solo Photography

Winner
Urban Travel by Mithail Afrige Chowdhury

Nuraine and her mother live in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh. Nuraine wanted to have the experience of eating a picnic outside in nature, but due to rapid urbanisation, there are very few parks or green spaces left. Nuraine's mother decided to recreate a "nature experience" on the roof of their apartment building. One of the reasons people are moving into cities is because of the increase in extreme weather events and natural disasters, particularly affecting Bangladesh.

Every day 2,000 climate migrants take up permanent residence in Dhaka, and they now comprise close to half of the total population. This is causing infrastructure challenges for the city. Mithail Afrige Chowdhury, a local photographer, draws our attention to this tender scene and contrasts it with the reality of urban expansion visible around them, asking us to consider the impacts of climate change on residents' daily lives.

Storytelling

Image 1 of 5

Winner
A Thousand Cuts by Sujata Setia

'A Thousand Cuts' studies the mental and physical trauma caused by domestic abuse within South Asian culture. It examines the scars borne by survivors, and the health repercussions that are passed on through generations. Artist Sujata Setia, herself a survivor of domestic abuse, worked in close collaboration with the charity SHEWISE and a group of volunteers who participated in the project.

These portraits depict the stories of these survivors as they chose to be seen, and after taking the photographs, Setia used the Indian paper-cutting technique sanjhi to maintain the women’s anonymity. This series acts as a visual meditation on the insidious, everyday forms of violence that are hidden and often go unacknowledged.

The Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging

Winner
Cholesterol in the Liver by Steve Gschmeissner

The liver is the organ that both produces and manages the levels of cholesterol in the body. This image is of cholesterol crystals (blue) within a lipid-laden liver cell (purple) taken from a human liver. When cholesterol changes from a liquid to a crystal, it can build up in the circulatory system and cause blood-vessel damage, leading to heart attacks and strokes.

Steve Gschmeissner, a scientific photographer, created the image using a technique called electron microscopy, which can visualise extremely small structures with very high resolution. Colouring of the resulting image highlights the different structures within the image. Detailed images such as these can support scientists and the public to better understand more about the effects of cholesterol on the body.

Image technique: False-coloured scanning electron microscopy
Scale: Width of the lipid droplet is 12 micrometres

See all the finalists

You might like...

Browse the best photography awards and contests for more inspiration.