Özden Turhan, Upside Down, 2023. We come into the world We grow Dreaming of so many things to fulfil Though some remain unfulfilled… Then we say farewell to the world Life’s trajectory is that simp…

Corinne Mercadier, Solo Series, Demain, 2011-2015. Struggles, humiliations, and hardships Are the enjeux of life. These are the moments that remind you of Who you are? What are you living for? What…

Duane Michals, Not Becoming Then, 1978. It was during my PhD years that I came to understand the significance a “patron” may assume in one’s writing career. The choice of a guide is hardly without …

Francesca Woodman, Untitled (Self-portrait from the door series), Providence, 1976. Standing at the threshold of the Gate, the Gate to Wonderland. Who may enter through this Gate? Identity, or civi…

René Burri, Leonforte, Sicily, Italy, 1956. I read Woolf’s essay on Archbishop Thomson many times, trying to figure out her main claim. At first, I was confused about Woolf’s central concern: was i…

Eugène Atget, Coin de la rue Valette et Panthéon, 1925. Once I was whole until I stumbled upon political objects. I didn’t realize that I was whole. When my wholeness broke apart, loss remained wit…

Sally Mann, Untitled (Deep South #41), 1998. In Turkey, ever since my childhood, whenever someone has been asked to provide “a short biography,” the answer almost invariably begins with the person’…

Saul Leiter, Snow, 1970. It is raining cats and dogs. Yet, there is always someone Who is never wet. Ambiguity of lives occurs As a miracle or as surrealism? Reminiscent of Pessoa, in whose univers…

August Sander, The Notary, Cologne, 1924, MoMA. When I was a child, I believed that being highly cultured automatically meant being civilised. This conviction resonates with the faith that Virginia…

Sally Mann, Untitled from Deep South, 1998. Reminiscent of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s words: “Then all found peace in a heap of livid dust.” As if the past were ever-present… While witnessing h…

David Aimone, Edge of the Forest, 2023. Recently, particularly in Turkey, professions such as writing are often regarded as ‘leisure’ occupations rather than economically respectable careers. I sti…

“The only way of finding solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure” Rafael Nadal When talking about the tennis, it is usually evident that playing tennis under silent…

Fan Ho, Journey to Uncertainty, Hong Kong, 1956. What distinguishes humans from animals? While chimpanzees share the same genes as humans Choosing kindness instead of surrendering to instinctive de…

Alexey Titarenko, Woman on the Corner, 1995. Can Russian literature, which has long been embraced in Turkey and perhaps in many other Eastern societies, truly be understood through a Western perspe…

Saul Leiter, Paris, 1959. A beam of light reflects through the half-open window. A beam of light shines on someone, while the rest remains in darkness. Antagonism anchored the world— I was interrup…

François d’Albert-Durade, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), 1849. To be judged is often to discover the value of understanding. Having experienced the limitations imposed by social prejudice, George …

Saul Leiter, Walk with Soames, 1958. Why is there a centre? Does a centre regulate order, or sustain polyphony? Does outstanding, harmonious coexistence depend upon the existence of a centre, or ra…

Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, 1818. In contemporary society, similarity often appears to be more highly valued than personality. Families, educational systems, and social environme…

Özden Turhan, Stop, 2012. Interweaving voices, like railway lines. Can voices change as much as railway lines? Different directions… As if life altered the lives of subjects, instead of their own. …

Sarah Moon, Maria Grazia Pour Dior II, 2024. Although Jane Austen is widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English literature, I have never found myself attracted to her fiction. Even…

Özden Turhan, Intensities, 2005. Listening to the rhythm of life, There are many more intensities. The peak of rhythm gives way to silence, As if silence were akin to the end of intensities. Remind…

Richard Purcell, Laetitia Pilkington, 1760. “From St. James’s Street and its noble benefactors she migrated to Green Street to lodge with Lord Stair’s valet de chambre and his wife, who washed for …

Özden Turhan, Top of the Mountain, 2005. How I wish to anticipate the future, Or the future of everything. I am always in shock when I witness How they can plan their future, as well as The future …

Eugène Atget, Cour de Rouen, 1898. Reminiscent of Henri Lefebvre’s reflections on everyday life, Virginia Woolf’s The Lives of the Obscure demonstrates how apparently insignificant details can illu…

Ara Güler, Aphrodisias, 1958. For many years, I have been thinking about whether translation is based on the search for mutual meaning or for cultural rhythms. In On Not Knowing Greek, Woolf demons…

Barbara Kruger, Your Body is a Battleground, 1989. Every corner I wander, I hear the same nonsensical propaganda— Like anthems, Loudly proclaimed and endlessly repeated, Of course, with hands raise…

Michael Dahl, Joseph Addison, 1719, National Portrait Gallery, London. For years, I have been drawn to a form of literature grounded not in psychological excavation but in conversation, sociability…

Sally Mann, Eyeless in Col Alto, 1993. Living as if everyone were innocent, Living as if the elders around you stood To protect you — or to reflect their notorious labels? I had a wonderful childho…

Sir Godfrey Kneller, Daniel Defoe, 17th – 18th century, National Maritime Museum. For a long time, I kept murmuring to myself, “What on earth do people find so compelling in Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vic…

Trent Parke, The Camera is God, 2013. Remorse rules decisions With a strange satisfaction— Oh! Satisfaction! That is the keystone of rotten spirit If it is born of envy A rotten spirit then engulfs…

Robert Walker, John Evelyn, 1648-1656. What I venerate in Virginia Woolf is her capacity to perceive what remains obscure beneath the surface of history. It is as though she illuminates the past in…

Duane Michals, Death Comes to the Old Lady, 1969. Thinking without hindrance, Speaking without calculating words, Manipulating them according to desire, Only to fall into a trap— Like a chess game,…

Sir Godfrey Kneller, Lady Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, 1683. It was in 1988 that I began elementary public school, where students had already been categorised according to their birthp…

Saul Leiter, Street Scene, 1959. What matters is to feel Without feelings, A mechanical mind engulfs you Feelings help you endure Feelings foresee danger Feelings show the way While you keep losing…

Bill Brandt, Cuckmere River, Sussex, 1963. In the summer of 1996, it was a dark and crowded night. As usual, our house was full of guests. I was searching for a place to conceal myself amid the cro…

Fan Ho, Approaching Shadow, 1954. Enough to speak with multitude Enough to understand each different voice Enough to look at every possible angle Enough not to judge Enough to see what cannot be se…

Sally Mann, Deep South, Untitled, 1998. The exquisite and sublime syntax of Elizabethan literature stems from Renaissance thought in Great Britain, where nautical explorations, voyages into unknown…

Wolfgang Tillmans, Ostgut Freischwimmer, Left, 2004. I worked hard, yet I failed I worked smart, yet I failed How could it happen? Life is opposite of mathematics She cheated, yet she succeeded She…

Bill Brandt, Coal-Searcher Going Home to Jarrow, 1970s. In glancing at Virginia Woolf’s essay, the first question that came to my mind was how one might understand the relationship between nautical…

The vestige of Roland Garros 2025 is a heartbroken story…. The tournament began and ended with idyllic ceremonies organized by the tournament directors who let to remind us of the crucial role of t…

Sally Mann, The Turn, 2005. What was it to be remembered? What was it to be called? What was it to be missed? Forgotten What was it to live? The vestige of life is imposed loneliness Forgotten Like…

Francesca Woodman, Self-portrait at Thirteen, Colorado, 1972. While reading Woolf’s essay The Strange Elizabethans, one question repeatedly returned to my mind: why does Woolf turn back to the manu…

Joan Fontcuberta & Pilar Rosado, série Frenografías, 2021. Ce que la psychiatrie fait à l’intelligence humaine : La rend-elle artificielle ? Le cerveau humain pourraient-il être contr…

Bill Brandt, Bombed Regency Staircase, Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, 1942. I have long been writing blog articles—a kind of modern essay—trying to remain elusive in relation to classical essay forms…

Bill Brandt, After the Celebration, 1934. Virginia Woolf’s epistolary Three Guineas unveils a central tension within the socio-political structure of the 1930s, one that may be interpreted as a con…

Sarah Moon, Pauline, n.d. I don’t feel anything anymore Joy has abandoned me Hopeless moments lie ahead Resisting against the waves of metamorphosis Once Dorian threatened: “I will reduce you to or…

Ansel Adams, Kings River Canyon, Middle Fork,1935. Imposing their local culture Where the settlement occurred Those who seek tragedy and rebirth. What would happen, If autochthons and migrants coll…

Alfred Stieglitz, Spring Showers – The Street Cleaner, 1900. Virginia Woolf’s novel Between the Acts is set on the eve of the Second World War, in June 1939. Woolf opts for narration through a trad…

Diane Arbus, Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962. There are doubtless those who always win Without working. There are doubtless those who always loose Even though they work.…