NILUPA YASMIN
Nilupa Yasmin is a lens-based artist and educator whose practice is rooted in storytelling, community, and craft. With a background in photography and an instinct for collaboration, Yasmin uses her work to challenge conventions and expand what photography can be both as a material process and a tool for social connection.
Working at the intersection of fine art and cultural anthropology, her practice blends image-making with weaving, collage, and installation. What emerges are artworks that are deeply personal and powerfully communal unfolding conversations around identity, heritage, and belonging. Through intricate layering, handwoven patterns, and family archive motifs, Yasmin disrupts traditional notions of what photography is "meant" to look like. Her images are tactile, lived-in, and intimate.
Born in Britain to Bangladeshi parents, Yasmin's dual identity is not only a source of reflection it’s a constant lens through which she navigates and reimagines the world. Her work often draws from her lived experience as a British Muslim woman, exploring the intersections of gender, culture, and religious identity. She approaches these themes with sensitivity and strength, building bridges between personal memory and collective history.
Yasmin’s socially engaged projects are a cornerstone of her practice. She collaborates closely with local communities often women of colour to co-create artworks that celebrate overlooked narratives and elevate communal experiences. Whether working with archives, conducting workshops, or curating public-facing exhibitions, her approach is one of co-authorship. It’s not just about making work about people, but making work with them.
Her critically acclaimed series Grow me a Waterlily brought traditional craft practices from Bangladeshi culture into contemporary photographic language, honouring matriarchal knowledge systems while challenging Eurocentric art world norms. Yasmin’s work frequently asks: whose stories are we telling, and how are they being told?
As an educator, she shares this ethos with students and collaborators alike empowering the next generation of artists to embrace their stories, their histories, and their artistic voices. Her workshops are an extension of her practice: experimental, inclusive, and rooted in care.
Yasmin’s work has been exhibited across the UK in major institutions such as The Photographers’ Gallery, Autograph ABP, and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Her accolades include winning the FORMAT Festival Open Call and being selected for the UK Young Artists initiative. She continues to play a vital role in shifting how we think about photographic authorship and representation.
At its core, Nilupa Yasmin’s practice is about presence being seen, being heard, and being held. Through her lens, identity is not static or singular, but layered, dynamic, and worthy of celebration.
Creative Debuts commissioned Nilupa as part of our partnership with Royal London Asset Management
