The outside of education: Rethinking photography education in Turkey through Cansu Yıldıran's feminist perspective


YAVUZ O.

PHILOSOPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, vol.16, no.2, pp.223-240, 2025 (ESCI) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 16 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1386/pop_00118_1
  • Journal Name: PHILOSOPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
  • Page Numbers: pp.223-240
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Feminist photography in Turkey operates at the intersection of artistic expression and political resistance, navigating a landscape shaped by patriarchal norms, authoritarian governance and a rigid educational infrastructure. This article explores how such visual practices challenge the dominant photographic education system in Turkey-one rooted in technocratic modernism that privileges technical mastery over critical, embodied and inclusive approaches to image-making. The work of emerging photographer Cansu Y & imath;ld & imath;ran, whose practice is shaped by feminist and queer sensibilities, enables an analysis of Delivered Intellect to: alternative photographic aesthetics and methods which suggest modes of resistance. In voicing personal and collective forms of marginalization in this context, Y & imath;ld & imath;ran's photographs implicitly critique its conventions of photography education. This, I argue, offers a counter-model that emphasizes performativity, vulnerability and lived experience and opens a critical space that invites more inclusive pedagogical possibilities.