Payel Hosen is a documentary photographer and filmmaker, and Executive Director of Health Outreach International, an NGO providing free medical care to underserved communities.

Born in Rangpur, Bangladesh, she moved to France at the age of five. Her perspective was shaped early by this experience of living between two cultures, two languages and two ways of seeing the world.

Before turning to photography, she spent several years in international project management, working on social and environmental impact projects in France and abroad. Her involvement with organisations supporting people in precarious situations, which began in 2022, gradually became central to the way she approaches documentary work: through proximity, time and a sustained engagement with the people she photographs.

A self-taught photographer, Payel developed her visual language through photography as well as a longstanding relationship with dance, theatre and cinema. These influences can be found in her attention to gesture, presence and the subtle interactions that unfold within a frame.

Her work explores questions of social justice, gender and belonging, with particular attention to how economic, political and cultural forces shape individual lives. She works through immersion, allowing relationships and situations to develop over time rather than approaching photography as a series of isolated encounters.

Based in Paris, Payel develops documentary photography and film projects in France and internationally, alongside her work leading Health Outreach International.