An international collaboration between Pathshala South Asian Media Institute (Bangladesh) and GRAIN Projects (UK), as part of British Council’s Connections Through Culture.

GRAIN Projects (UK) and Pathshala Institute announce the two artists who will be taking part in the International Photography Residency during 2026.

Artists Zillah Bowes and Mushfiq Mahbub Turjo will be working in dialogue and creating new opportunities to develop their work around climate emergency, biodiversity, land use, community activism, and the changing natural environment. Both artists work beyond the photographic image including in sculpture, staging, text and film. The residency will culminate in exhibitions in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Birmingham (UK) later this year.

GRAIN and Pathshala Institute are arts organisations that create new opportunities for diverse and emerging artists and photographers, supporting the development of skills and opportunities. They are interested in innovative approaches that speak of our world today and have social impact. In their research and work the artists will respond to the theme of ‘Resistance’ during a blend of digital and live activities, featuring online dialogue, support, mentoring, portfolio reviews and meetings with artform curators, gallerists and archivists.

“Pathshala South Asian Media Institute congratulates artists Zillah Bowes and Mushfiq Mahbub Turjo on their selection for the Resistance, Re-Imagine International Photography Residency 2026. We are honoured to collaborate with GRAIN Projects UK on this timely initiative addressing climate emergency, biodiversity, land use, community activism and the changing natural environment, and we thank the British Council for initiating and supporting this programme. We commend both artists for their innovative, socially engaged practices and wish them every success as they work in dialogue throughout the residency and as the project culminates in exhibitions in Dhaka and Birmingham later this year.” Khandaker Tanvir Murad, Head of Photography Department.

“Congratulations to Zillah Bowes and Turjo Mushfiq Mushfiq Mahbub Turjo on being selected for the Resistance, Re-Imagine: International Photography Residency. Through the Connections Through Culture 2025 grant, we are pleased to support this collaboration between Pathshala Institute in Bangladesh and GRAIN Projects in the UK. We hope this opportunity will help further develop their practice, expand their reach to new audiences, and strengthen creative exchange between Bangladesh and the UK.” Maarya Rehman, Deputy Director, British Council Bangladesh.

Artist bio’s:

Zillah Bowes recent photographic practice explores how landscapes shaped by long histories of human use are responding to contemporary environmental crisis. She is particularly interested in how resistance operates quietly within land, through stewardship, maintenance, and everyday acts of care, and how photography might help re-imagine these landscapes beyond inherited visual traditions of beauty, stability, or control. Her work is research-led and develops over extended periods, allowing relationships with place to shape the form and ethics of the work. Using primarily analogue photography alongside moving image and text, the artist aim’s to slow perception and resist extractive approaches to landscape.
Careful observation, collaboration, and attention to ecological processes underpin her practice, focusing on culturally familiar yet environmentally fragile environments, asking how images can hold uncertainty
rather than resolve it. www.hyphastudios.com/zillah-bowes

Mushfiq Mahbub Turjo presents personal and shared experiences often through sculptures, paintings, staging, directing, image cutouts, and text on imagery. The photographs are finally produced through a journey of formations and reformations. He completed his Masters in Documentary and Photojournalism from University of the Arts London with a scholarship from “Agency VII”. Turjo had has exhibited his work internationally including in Europe. His work is about the human condition and the impact that Dhaka’s environment has on communities and individuals. His photographs accompanied by contextual text, show the fragility of urban existence in the city and provoke a dialogue on ecological degradation, and the resilience of people living within a disoriented cityscape. www.turjomushfiq.com

(c) Mushfiq Mahbub Turjo

Main image (c) Zillah Bowes