This feature is part of CULTURED‘s 2026 Young Photographers list. This year’s list spotlights 14 artists aged 30 or younger from around the globe who are united by a relentless curiosity and an understanding that the photographer’s most important job is identifying what deserves to be seen.
AGE: 30
BASED IN: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The documentary photographer’s images often observe their surroundings from the outside, catching only a flash of a figure, or a lively scene from afar. This dramatic tension earned Bazargarid such accolades as Baxter St at CCNY’s 2025 residency and the Arnold Newman Scholarship from the International Center of Photography.
What’s your creative philosophy?
I don’t set up photographs. I work with what’s already there, and I think what we choose to see from everything around us reflects what’s inside us. I also tend to let my work ferment—I process faster in the moment than I realize, so the real feelings usually catch up later, and that’s when the work actually makes sense to me.
What questions does your work ask?
How does a place define us? How do the borders and bureaucracies imposed on us limit where we go and who we get to be? I’m also interested in the resilience of land. It existed before us and will outlast anything we build on it, so what do we make of the structures we’ve created for now?
What fears does your work address?
Belonging. I grew up in between places, and there’s always this tension of being emotionally tied to somewhere, while knowing you’re only there temporarily. My work lives in that gap.
Who do you make photographs for?
Initially, just for me. But when you share the work and it resonates with someone, you realize, “Oh, it was meant to be seen by you.” I’m always so moved by Richard Serra’s giant slabs of curved steel. There’s an overwhelming feeling of, This is the thing. I only hope someday someone feels that in my work.
Meet more of CULTURED‘s 2026 Young Photographers:
Photographer Alec Dai Once Shot a Series Naked, in a Basement, Under a ‘Weird Portrait of Jesus’
Many Photographers Have Been Nominated for a Pulitzer. This One Was Nominated for a Grammy.
Photographer Arielle Gray Wants Her Subjects to Be Unafraid of Softness
For Queer Photographer Ben Jastremski, ‘Every Image I Make Is the Permission I Was Never Given’
War Still Rages in Ukraine. Photographer Conall Kearney Is There to Document It.
Sign up for our newsletter here to get these stories direct to your inbox.
in your life?
