Born in Rangpur, Bangladesh, Payel came to France at the age of five. It is in that in-between, between two languages, two cultures, two ways of inhabiting the world, that her gaze took shape.

After studying and working for several years in international project management with a focus on social and environmental impact, in France and abroad, she turned to documentary photography to pursue what drives her: encounter, testimony, and closeness to the field. Since 2022, she has volunteered with several organizations working toward equal opportunity and the support of people in precarious situations, including women, children, and families. It is through these relationships, built over time and rooted in proximity, that her documentary practice has taken form.

Self-taught, she develops her craft through practice and workshops with grassroots organizations. Alongside her professional path, dance, theatre, and cinema have deeply shaped her visual sensibility: an attentiveness to gesture, to presence, to what happens inside the frame before the shutter is released.

Her work engages with questions of social justice, gender, and belonging. She documents lives built under conditions of vulnerability, where economic, political, and cultural structures determine destinies. She works through immersion, convinced that the most honest images come from trust and shared time.

Based in Paris, she is currently developing several documentary photography and film projects across the world.