Brighton trio shortlisted for global Wellcome photography awards

The trio are among 31 finalists shortlisted from 10,000 entrants for the prestigious Wellcome Photography Prize, which this year focuses on personal views of three urgent global health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and global heating. This year's winners will be announced at a live event on YouTube on 28 July 2021.

Kate Rosewell – in the final year of her Photography BA(Hons) - is shortlisted in the Managing Mental Health (Single Image) category for a self-portrait in her Disconnected series, visualising experiences of dissociation as a response to trauma, as well as the isolation of lockdown

Dulcie Wagstaff – a 2016 graduate from the same degree – is also shortlisted in the same category for an image entitled Head in Hole, which captures a moment of gardening in response to depression, confronting the cold on a winter's day in a summery floral dress.

Dulcie said: “Gardening in winter is a defiant act, against the elements and our human instinct to stay indoors in the short, dark days. However in this instance it is a lifeline, in search of light, connection, movement and purpose.”

Richard Boll – who completed a Photography MA at the university in 2016 – is on the Fighting Infections (Single Image) shortlist for a poignant and powerful image of his wife Louise as she underwent chemotherapy for cancer during the first UK lockdown last year.

Self-portrait by Kate Rosewell from her Disconnected series

Head in Hole by Dulcie Wagstaff

Francis Hodgson, Professor in the Culture of Photography and BA Photography course leader, said: “The whole course team teaching photography in Brighton congratulates Kate, Dulcie and Richard for getting to the shortlist for this award. It is rare to have three names on a shortlist in a competition open to so very many – and we take that not only as a tribute to the artists, but also as a very welcome compliment to our teaching. We are always proud of our students and the amazing work they consistently do – but the external confirmation that comes when recognition comes in a very public way is lovely.

“It has been a very hard year in which to make pictures, and it’s wonderful that standards have been maintained at such a very high level. We hope this recognition is only the beginning of great recognition for these three. At the same time, there are also lots of our students whose work is as moving and every bit as well executed, and for whom recognition will come later.”