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We invite photographers and other image makers from all disciplines to enter the Wellcome Photography Prize, which celebrates compelling imagery that captures stories of health, medicine and science.
Previously the Wellcome Image Awards, our newly relaunched competition will reward pictures that show the importance of health in society and the impact health issues have on people and communities worldwide.
We’re looking for entries that can captivate people with stories of science and medicine, and start conversations about some of the health challenges humanity faces today.
Whether you are a research scientist, a documentary or clinical photographer, an artist, or a photojournalist, this is a great opportunity for you to inspire people to think differently about health, medicine and life.
Prizes and publicity
Images will be shortlisted and then winners chosen by a panel of high-profile judges.
The winner of each category will receive £1,250, with the overall winner receiving a prize of £15,000. Prizes will be presented at an awards ceremony in London on 3 July 2019.
All the winning and shortlisted entries will go on show in a major public exhibition at Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, from 4-13 July 2019.
If you’re a winner, we will also offer you opportunities to take part in events to showcase your work to a range of audiences. Our winning images receive extensive international media coverage each year.
The winner of the Medicine in Focus category will be invited to produce the Julie Dorrington commission, a photo story exploring and documenting a patient’s journey with their condition.
Categories
There are four categories in the competition:
- Social perspectives – explore how health and illness affect the way we live
- Hidden worlds – reveal details hidden to the naked eye
- Medicine in focus – show health and healthcare up close and personal
- Outbreaks (2019 theme) – capture the impact of disease as it spreads.
The images shown in each category are to inspire you but are for illustration only. Your entry doesn’t necessarily need to be in a similar style or about a similar topic. We’re open to all perspectives.
Category 1: Social perspectives
Some suggestions to get you thinking:
- provide insights into the impact of health conditions, disease and disability
- start conversations about health taboos
- connect the planet’s health with our own
- raise awareness of health issues that are little-known outside the areas they affect
- explore medical technology used in social contexts.
Category 2: Hidden worlds
Some suggestions to get you thinking:
- focus on the complexities that underpin biology
- highlight phenomena usually hidden in plain sight
- make cutting-edge biomedical science research accessible
- show new ways to diagnose or detect disease
- share scientific knowledge with a mass audience
- use new imaging technologies to let people watch science at work.
Category 3: Medicine in focus
Some suggestions to get you thinking:
- explore healthcare delivery, whether high-tech hospital treatment or improvised medicine in the field
- uncover local community clinics and outreach work
- show the personal impact of medical conditions and treatments (from the common to the rare)
- open up hard-to-access areas – on the ward, in theatre, in high-level containment units or in isolated parts of the world
- explain specialised medical equipment.
Category 4: Outbreaks (2019 theme)
Some suggestions to get you thinking:
- explore the burden that a disease outbreak places on a community
- investigate how outbreaks bring people together
- expose the molecular features of infectious and non-infectious disease outbreaks
- track the journey of disease as it spreads
- understand the pressures that epidemics place on our healthcare systems
- look at how we fight current and future threats to our health.
Techniques
We are open to entries created with the following techniques, or any other you want to use:
- photography (eg documentary, clinical, studio, still life)
- close-up photography (eg photomacrography, macro photography, photomicrography)
- microscopy (eg light, electron, super-resolution)
- medical imaging (eg CT, PET, MRI, X-ray, ultrasound, thermography)
- new and emerging imaging technologies
- data visualisation
- artistic media (eg illustration, 3D printing, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media).
Some image-making techniques will be better suited to particular categories, but however you create your entry it’s up to you to choose which category fits it best.
Judges panel
The judges for the 2019 prize are:
- Emma Bowkett, Director of Photography at FT Weekend Magazine, UK
- Dan M Davis, Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester, UK
- Dr Heidi Larson, Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK
- Joanne Liu, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières, Switzerland
- Pete Muller, National Geographic Photographer and Fellow, Kenya
- Azu Nwagbogu, Curator at Large for Photography at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Nigeria.
The judges panel will be chaired by Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome.
How to enter
The deadline for entries is 17 December 2018.
You can enter as many images as you like, but you can’t enter the same image into more than one category. Each entry will be judged individually and should work as a standalone image.
If you’re submitting more than one image from the same series, consider which images have the most impact and only submit those that offer something unique.
As the image maker you will retain full copyright over your own work. We just ask for permission to use your images in the context of the prize (in exhibitions, promotions, publications and media coverage including social media) for three years.
For winning and shortlisted images only, we also ask for ongoing permission to use your image in the context of the prize and to support Wellcome’s broader charitable work. This is so that we can continue discussions about the health issues and stories to which the images relate.
Read the competition terms and conditions for more information.
Contact us
If you would like to know more about the prize:
T +44 (0)20 7611 8215
E PhotoPrize@wellcome.ac.uk
For media enquiries:
T +44 (0)20 7611 8866
E media.office@wellcome.ac.uk
Credit for main image: Anne-Katrin Purkiss. Wellcome Image Award winner 2009.