Laleper Aytek, photographer, college instructor and critic living and working in Istanbul.

After graduating from Boğaziçi University with a BA in economics, Aytek went to Norway to pursue graduate studies in social economics where her interest shifted more and more to photography. Her growing interest in photography that has stated in her college years resulted in her opening a photography studio in Istanbul in the early 90’s. While practicing her art as a free-lance advertising photographer, she also made valuable contributions to photography in Turkey by taking part, as the director of photography, in the establishment of the first large scale digital photography studios in Turkey.  Since 2009, Aytek is teaching courses on photography in the Department of Media & Visual Arts (MAVA), Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey).

Aytek’s contribution to the literature is mainly through her journal articles where she focuses especially on the “ways of seeing” and the “history of photography” from a subjectivity point of view. This peculiar approach is mainly elaborated in her MA thesis entitled “Rethinking the History of Photography Canon: A Study on Subjectivity”. Her published work include a collection of her articles on photographic thinking; Kendine Ait Bir Fotoğraf / A Photography of Her Own  (2005), Palimpsest Istanbul (2010) and Issız / Void (2013). As a photographer, Aytek also participated in numerous solo and group shows since 1991.