The judges of the 14th annual image contest were unanimous in their choice for first prize, noting the emotional response evoked by the pony uterus image. “It’s fascinating, sad, macabre, almost brutal. Yet the subject is also delicate, detailed and beautiful,” one of the judges, James Cutmore, picture editor of BBC Focus magazine, said in a statement. “The image shows us a large and magnificent creature reduced to this sad, fragile and half-formed creation, which I find very humbling.” [See the Amazing Wellcome Award Images of 2015]
Michael Frank, of the Royal Veterinary College, captured the winning photograph, revealing the uterus of the 5-month-pregnant New Forest pony specimen preserved in formalin at the Anatomy Museum of the Royal Veterinary College in London. The pony fetus extends outside the uterus, still attached by membranes and the umbilical cord; its bent legs protrude from the membranes. “Those rear legs of a horse from an equine uterus — a compelling and haunting image,” another judge, Fergus Walsh, a medical correspondent for the BBC, said in the statement.
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