Joan Wakelin Bursary Prize at 20 – in pictures

A look back at a selection of some of the remarkable work enabled by the Joan Wakelin bursary, administered by the Guardian and the Royal Photographic Society, which offers photographers £2,000 and the opportunity to have their work published in the Guardian, as it approaches its 20th year

  • Entries are welcome for this year’s bursary, which is free and open to photographers of any age and nationality. Please apply online here by 6 June 2024
Main image: Khanyisa Mtulu and her friend, Azasakhe Manxeba attend the Matric dance in Cape Town January 2018 Photograph: Alice Mann/Joan Wakelin Bursary

  • Antonio wearing his Traje De Luces and practising with his Muleta, within in the Malaga bullring, 2 March 2023

    The latest recipient of the Joan Wakelin bursary, photojournalist Owen Harvey, visited Spain to explore what the divisive tradition of bullfighting as the country headed for elections that could influence its future
    Antonio wearing his Traje De Luces and practising with his Muleta, within in the Malaga bullring, 2 March 2023

  • Adriano Pina performs for tourists at Tasca do Chico in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, 2020

    Henri Kisielewski was the 2019 recipient of the Joan Wakelin bursary, and produced a portrait of Lisbon, saudade and the fado folk music of the city and its relationship with tourism
    Adriano Pina performs for tourists at Tasca do Chico in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, 2020

  • Gerson with his friends and cousin at the rooftop of their home late in El Valle Caracas, 2019

    The 2018 recipient bursary, Silvana Trevale left Venezuela in 2011 but returned to document the ever worsening economic crisis
    Gerson with his friends and cousin at the rooftop of their home late in El Valle Caracas, 2019

  • Khanyi and her friend, Azasakhe Manxeba attend the Matric dance, January 2018

    The final year of high school in South Africa is known as matric, and the ball held to mark it is a major event in students’ lives. Photographer Alice Mann, 2017 winner of the bursary followed Khanyisa Mtulu as she prepared for her dance
    Khanyi and her friend, Azasakhe Manxeba attend the Matric dance, January 2018

  • Ekua Ketsewa, 76, with her family in her new room in the village she was born in, November 2016

    The 2016 winner Matilda Temperley focused on the prople living with the leprosy in Ghana
    Ekua Ketsewa, 76, with her family in her new room in the village she was born in, November 2016

  • Vanessa Morgado and her father are amongst the activists fighting for the islanders against Polis, April 2016

    The 2015 winner of the bursary photographed the inhabitants of the islands of Deserta and Culatra and the Rio Formosa in front of Faro and Olhão in the Algarve, have been fighting in court for the right not to demolish the four small villages erected on the island
    Vanessa Morgado and her father are amongst the activists fighting for the islanders against Polis, April 2016

  • Alejandra Ramirez, 23, model and diet pill seller, Medellín, Colombia, 2015

    In Colombia, girls grow up in a world where they are seen as decorative objects – and where plastic surgery rules. The 2014 bursary winner Manuela Henao captured the teenagers shelling out fortunes for buttock implants, nose jobs and new breasts for her series ‘Beauties’
    Alejandra Ramirez, 23, model and diet pill seller, Medellín, Colombia, 2015

  • Nicolas Prado of the Universidad Catolica, Santiago at the Alto Patache fog Oasis near Iquique in Northern Chile, 2012

    The 2011 winner of the Joan Wakelin bursary, was Neil Hall - who chose to travel to the Atacama desert in Chile, said to be the driest place on Earth, to document the process of harvesting coastal fog in large nets
    Nicolas Prado of the Universidad Catolica, Santiago at the Alto Patache fog Oasis near Iquique in Northern Chile, 2012

  • Year 9 Cossack Cadets (15- 16 years old), during lunch in the canteen of Ataman Platov Cossack Cadet school in Belaya Kalitva, Southern Russia, August 2010

    Year 9 Cossack Cadets (15- 16 years old), during lunch in the canteen of Ataman Platov Cossack Cadet school in Belaya Kalitva, Southern Russia, August 2010

  • Faraja (8) and Pishon Mhewa (10) with their baby brother Jeminus (6 months). Their parents were both black skinned but carriers of the recessive albinism gene, Tanzania, 2008

    The winner from 2008, Jackie Dewe Mathews, photographed a series titled Ghosts looking at Albinism in Tanzania
    Faraja (8) and Pishon Mhewa (10) with their baby brother Jeminus (6 months). Their parents were both black skinned but carriers of the recessive albinism gene, Tanzania, 2008

  • Waste collector Rajeev Kumar, 20, and his cart in an affluent suburb of Delhi, 2008

    Brijesh Patel, winner of the bursary in 2007, travelled to India to photograph the environmental consequences of rapid economic growth, and documented the lives waste pickers in Delhi, who live on what they can scavenge from landfill rubbish dumps
    Waste collector Rajeev Kumar, 20, and his cart in an affluent suburb of Delhi, 2008

  • Beijing West, 13 February 2007

    The most recent extension to China’s vast railway network is the 1,142km stretch that links the province of Qinghai with Tibet. The Golmud-Lhasa railway (Qingzang railway) was officially opened on 1st July 2006 and a daily service from Beijing was promptly established. The journey along the 4,064km of track takes 48 hours with the trains travelling at 160km/h on the planes and at 120km/h from Golmud
    Beijing West, 13 February 2007

  • A family in Takeo province, Cambodia, April 2006

    Michael Nott was the first winner of the Joan Wakelin Bursary in 2005
    A family in Takeo province, Cambodia, April 2006
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