Knitting in lockdown image wins Wellcome Photography Prize 2021

The winner in the Fighting Infections (single image) category is 'The Time of Coronavirus' by Aly Song. The photographer captured volunteers disinfecting the Qintai Grand Theatre In Wuhan, China – near where the pandemic started, .

Shortlisted for the Fighting Infections category is 'Fighting Pandemic' by Sudipto Das. The image is of a tram conductor in Kolkata, India, wearing protective clothing despite the heat of a summer afternoon.

'The Hug Room' by Max Cavallari was another shortlisted entry. In a nursing home in Castelfranco Veneto, northern Italy, staff use plastic sheeting to help residents reunite with their families, like this mother and daughter. “It was like opening a pressure cooker,” the daughter said.

'Louise, March 2020' by Richard Boll During the first UK lockdown, Richard Boll’s wife Louise was having chemotherapy for breast cancer. Her compromised immune system meant she was at extremely high risk, which meant strict self-isolation at their home in Hove. It was an incredibly hard time for Louise, but she is now close to full recovery.

Shortlisted in the Fighting Infections (single image) category is 'Corona Bride' by Hadi Dehghanpour. This staged picture in Sabzevar, Iran, imagines how a bride and groom would have to interact if they were kept apart.

An image of self-reflection among the Covid-19 chaos helped London artist Jameisha Prescod scoop a Wellcome Photography Prize.

Ms Prescod won the single image prize with her photograph Untangling in the Managing Mental Health category.

The prize, now in its third year, focused on images that covered mental health, infectious disease and climate change.

“It’s really hard to talk about mental health and I guess it’s especially hard to turn a camera on yourself to expose some of the deepest and darkest [fears], but I’m glad that even taking it, I guess, could touch on something that a lot of us have been going through in this pandemic,” Ms Prescod said.

“I would also like to thank my family and especially my grandfather who bought me my first camera,” she said.

The shortlisted works included images from the California wildfires to the impact of tourism in the Maldives.

Yoppy Pieter won the series image prize in the Fighting Infections category for her Trans Woman: Between Colour and Voice.

“Both the winning entries moved the judges and initiated debate, we couldn’t help but discuss them at length,” said Jeremy Farrar, chairman of the Wellcome Photography Prize. “Covid-19 and mental health are components in both, but what captivated us all was the powerful human stories at the very centre – viewed through a lens of compassion.”

The other four category finalists were:

• The Big Fish is an image inspired by Iranian myth.
• The Time of Coronavirus was taken in Wuhan close to where the pandemic began.
• Climate Cost shows a man rescuing belongings from the wreckage of his house in Bangladesh.
• An Elegy for the Death of Hamun shows how Iran’s once-fertile Sistan and Baluchestan region is turning into a desert.