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

This article examines feminist photography in Turkey as a form of artistic and political resistance that challenges the country’s dominant photography education system, which is characterized by technocratic modernism and male-dominated, formalist approaches. Focusing on the work of emerging photographer Cansu Yıldıran, whose practice is informed by feminist and queer perspectives, the article highlights how their photographic series critique institutional norms by emphasizing lived experience, marginalization, and social engagement rather than technical mastery. It situates these issues within Turkey’s specific sociopolitical context marked by patriarchal traditions, authoritarian governance, and a late institutionalization of photography education that often excludes feminist and critical methodologies. Yıldıran’s departure from Marmara University’s photography program exemplifies tensions between rigid academic curricula and alternative, embodied modes of visual expression that resist dominant Eurocentric and depoliticized frameworks. The article argues for a reimagining of photography education in Turkey that incorporates feminist, queer, and decolonial approaches to foster more inclusive and critically engaged pedagogies.