Wellcome Photography Prize 2020 shortlist announced

23 July 2020

The shortlist for the 2020 Wellcome Photography Prize has recently been announced, with 44 images from photographers in 13 countries making the cut. Entrants are competing across the categories of Social Perspectives, Hidden Worlds, Medicine in Focus, and two categories highlighting the 2020 theme of Mental Health. The winners will be announced on 19 August.

Category: Hidden Worlds. © Poulomi Basu. Blood Speaks, Surkhet district, Nepal, 2016. Saraswati, a 16-year-old new mother, is being carried from her village to the nearest hospital – a three-hour journey that will involve a river crossing. Because of her post-partum bleeding her community deemed her impure, and she was shut inside a small, darkened room, an exile intended to last for 15 days. As a result, her legs are now severely swollen and she also has post-partum depression.
Category: Hidden Worlds. © Poulomi Basu. Blood Speaks, Surkhet district, Nepal, 2016. Saraswati, a 16-year-old new mother, is being carried from her village to the nearest hospital – a three-hour journey that will involve a river crossing. Because of her post-partum bleeding her community deemed her impure, and she was shut inside a small, darkened room, an exile intended to last for 15 days. As a result, her legs are now severely swollen and she also has post-partum depression.

A total of more than 7,500 photographs from 127 countries were submitted across the five categories. The second year that the competition has been run, “the prize tells provocative visual stories about the health challenges of our time, combatting health taboos, bringing complex health issues to life and showing how health affects society”

An expert panel of judges from across photography, medicine, media, and science chose the shortlist from categories below.

  • Social perspectives – provide insight into the impact of health and disease on society.
  • Hidden worlds – reveal details hidden in plain sight, or combat health taboos.
  • Medicine in focus – explore healthcare delivery up close or from behind the scenes.
  • Mental health - single image – dispel the visual clichés of mental illness.
  • Mental health – series (up to five images) – tell a story through related images across the spectrum of mental health.

The overall winner will receive a £15,000 prize, with the winner of each category receiving £1,250.

Category: Hidden Worlds. © Jenevieve Aken. Monankim, Cross River State, Nigeria, 2017. A teenage girl sits in her healing room, having recently been circumcised. This makes her, in the language of the Bakor people, a Monankim. After two weeks of recovery and feeding, she will be presented to the community as a sexually mature woman who has remained a virgin, ready for marriage. Some Bakor still celebrate this traditional rite of passage, but others oppose it, not least because of the health risks: the bleeding can be severe, and some Monankim do not survive it.
Category: Hidden Worlds. © Jenevieve Aken. Monankim, Cross River State, Nigeria, 2017. A teenage girl sits in her healing room, having recently been circumcised. This makes her, in the language of the Bakor people, a Monankim. After two weeks of recovery and feeding, she will be presented to the community as a sexually mature woman who has remained a virgin, ready for marriage. Some Bakor still celebrate this traditional rite of passage, but others oppose it, not least because of the health risks: the bleeding can be severe, and some Monankim do not survive it.

The judges

The shortlist was selected by Chair of Judges Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome, and a panel of six judges: Siân Davey (photographer), MaryAnne Golon (Washington Post), Dr Aiysha Malik (World Health Organization), John Moe (The Hilarious World of Depression podcast), Dr David Nott (David Nott Foundation), Azu Nwagbogu (African Artists’ Foundation and Lagos Photo Festival). Information on the judges can be found at this link.

All the shortlisted images can be viewed by following this link.

Category: Medicine in Focus. © Sameer Satchu. Tomorrow’s Echo, Lira district, Uganda, 2019.
Category: Medicine in Focus. © Sameer Satchu. Tomorrow’s Echo, Lira district, Uganda, 2019.

The shortlist

Photographer

Nationality

Entry title

Location

HIDDEN WORLDS

Jenevieve Aken

Nigerian

Monankim

Cross River State, Nigeria

Poulomi Basu

Indian

Blood Speaks

Surkhet district, Nepal

Giacomo Infantino

Italian

Before Waking Up

Milan, Italy

J Houston

American

Body Index

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Patricia Morosan

Romanian

You, The Living

Berlin, Germany

MEDICINE IN FOCUS

Pierre Bureau

French-Ethiopian

Care Worker in London

London, UK

Maite Caramés

Spanish

After Surgery

Barcelona, Spain

Marco Gualazzini

Italian

Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Butembo, DRC

Julia Gunther and Sophia Mohammed, Light for the World

German

Hadia

Mundri, South Sudan

Sameer Satchu

Tanzanian

Tomorrow’s Echo

Lira district, Uganda

MENTAL HEALTH (single image)

Camila Falcão

Brazilian

Téo

São Paolo, Brazil

Tom Merilion

British

Nina, 3 Degrees

River Spey, Scotland, UK

Benji Reid

British

Holding on to daddy

Manchester, UK

Lorena Ros

Spanish

Unspoken

Barcelona, Spain

Jeffrey Stockbridge

American

Amber Lynn Nichols, 24 Years Old, 3 Months off Heroin

Philadelphia, USA

MENTAL HEALTH (image series)

Sebastian Mar

Russian Federation

Mental Health Kit

Moscow, Russia

Arseniy Neskhodimov

Russian Federation

Prozac

Moscow, Russia, Shark El Sheik, Egypt

Nyancho NwaNri

Gamgerian (Gambian-Nigerian)

Going Under

Lagos, Nigeria

Therese Alice Sanne

Norwegian

Black Sun

Trondheim and Oslo, Norway

Mirja Maria Thiel

German

Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man

Worpswede, Germany

SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

Gianluca Urdiroz Agati

Spanish

Adrian & Luca

Bournemouth, UK

Julia Cybularz

American

Breaking the Girl

Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA

Marijn Fidder

Dutch

Cards

Gieten, Netherlands

Ed Kashi

American

Alzheimer's, USA, 2014

Missouri, USA

Elisabetta Zavoli

Italian

The Landfill Midwife

Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, Indonesia

 

Category: Medicine in Focus. © Maite Caramés. After Surgery, Barcelona, Spain, 2014. When Valérie was diagnosed with breast cancer, she asked her friend to document her experience of the illness and treatment. When chemotherapy took her hair away, she used a wig to help herself face the world each day. And when she came to after surgery to remove the reduced tumour, she decided she wanted to be photographed there and then. This is a moment of vulnerability and pain but also of remarkable strength and optimism. It’s a moment of life.
Category: Medicine in Focus. © Maite Caramés. After Surgery, Barcelona, Spain, 2014. When Valérie was diagnosed with breast cancer, she asked her friend to document her experience of the illness and treatment. When chemotherapy took her hair away, she used a wig to help herself face the world each day. And when she came to after surgery to remove the reduced tumour, she decided she wanted to be photographed there and then. This is a moment of vulnerability and pain but also of remarkable strength and optimism. It’s a moment of life.
Category: Mental Health (series). © Nyancho NwaNri. Going Under, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019. This neighbourhood on the bank of the Lagos lagoon suffers annual flooding – more severely and for longer, as climate change raises sea levels. Apart from the physical damage and the risk of water-borne diseases, there comes a threat to mental health. A resident sits in his room with his feet up on a paint bucket to avoid the floodwater.
Category: Mental Health (series). © Nyancho NwaNri. Going Under, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019. This neighbourhood on the bank of the Lagos lagoon suffers annual flooding – more severely and for longer, as climate change raises sea levels. Apart from the physical damage and the risk of water-borne diseases, there comes a threat to mental health. A resident sits in his room with his feet up on a paint bucket to avoid the floodwater.
Category: Mental Health (single). © Jeffrey Stockbridge. Amber Lynn Nichols, 24 Years Old, 3 Months off Heroin, Philadelphia, USA, 2019. Amber is a survivor of physical and mental abuse who has struggled with addiction since she was 11 years old – to alcohol, opioids, sedatives, ADHD meds, meth, heroin and more. She is now in recovery, and recently had a whole year clean, ending when she was prescribed pain medication after an injury. “I should have known better than to take opioids, but oh well. You live and you learn.” She plans to become a drug and alcohol counsellor so she can help others having trouble with addiction.
Category: Mental Health (single). © Jeffrey Stockbridge. Amber Lynn Nichols, 24 Years Old, 3 Months off Heroin, Philadelphia, USA, 2019. Amber is a survivor of physical and mental abuse who has struggled with addiction since she was 11 years old – to alcohol, opioids, sedatives, ADHD meds, meth, heroin and more. She is now in recovery, and recently had a whole year clean, ending when she was prescribed pain medication after an injury. “I should have known better than to take opioids, but oh well. You live and you learn.” She plans to become a drug and alcohol counsellor so she can help others having trouble with addiction.
Category: Social Perspectives. © Ed Kashi. Alzheimer’s USA, 2014, Missouri, USA, 2014. Daisy, 38, and her mother Sonia, 58, are heading home just after finding out that Daisy has the gene linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Sonia has had the disease for ten years. A teacher for 29 years, Sonia now needs full-time care from Daisy, accompanying her to work and sitting in the corner with colouring books and crayons. “I’ve looked into homes but I don’t have the heart to do it,” Daisy says. “She’s my world. Why would I turn my back on her now when she needs me the most?”
Category: Social Perspectives. © Ed Kashi. Alzheimer’s USA, 2014, Missouri, USA, 2014. Daisy, 38, and her mother Sonia, 58, are heading home just after finding out that Daisy has the gene linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Sonia has had the disease for ten years. A teacher for 29 years, Sonia now needs full-time care from Daisy, accompanying her to work and sitting in the corner with colouring books and crayons. “I’ve looked into homes but I don’t have the heart to do it,” Daisy says. “She’s my world. Why would I turn my back on her now when she needs me the most?”

All the shortlisted images can be viewed by following this link.

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