Fashion photographer Tamer Yılmaz joins Melek Angun on Monart Talks to discuss a career that began in the darkroom, the importance of expression in portraiture and the changes AI is bringing to image-making. For Yılmaz, no perfectly constructed image can replace photography’s ability to bear witness to a moment.
Does a beautiful image necessarily qualify as a photograph? This distinction lies at the heart of Tamer Yılmaz’s Monart Talks interview. At a time when artificial intelligence can generate models, locations and entire campaigns, he locates photography’s value not simply in the finished image’s aesthetics, but in its connection to something that genuinely happened.
Hosted by Melek Angun and published on the MonarT’alks YouTube channel on 8 November 2026, the 44-minute, 18-second conversation moves from the history of fashion photography to today’s visual habits. It covers Yılmaz’s early career, communication on set, digital retouching, social media filters and the future of photography.
From the darkroom to fashion photography
Yılmaz recalls first becoming interested in photography through courses he attended in Ankara when he was around 13 or 14. Photography, an activity he pursued alongside basketball, took on a different significance when he watched an image emerge in the darkroom. Faced with a choice between a bicycle and a camera, he chose the camera. He and his brother subsequently turned the small toilet at home into a darkroom.
Work in a newspaper laboratory was followed by photographic education. Discussing his move into fashion, Yılmaz stresses that successful photographers were already working in the field before him. What distinguished his own decision was a commitment to fashion photography rather than moving between different genres. Magazine assignments, he explains, helped them understand the production methods and visual approaches of international fashion publications.
Expression and trust are central to a good portrait
One of the interview’s most immediately useful sections concerns putting a subject at ease. Yılmaz believes that avoiding the atmosphere of a demanding examination is an important part of a photographer’s relationship with the person in front of the camera. He describes his aim not as transforming someone into another person, but as reflecting the beauty they recognise in themselves.
His discussion of digital editing returns to the same idea. Facial features and other details can be altered, but the expression in a person’s eyes depends on the relationship established during the shoot. More powerful technical tools therefore do not make a photographer’s human communication redundant.
AI: constructing an image is not the same as witnessing a moment
Yılmaz does not treat every use of artificial intelligence as equivalent. He says he is not opposed to its use in advertising, which already involves constructing fictional worlds. In fashion, however, the ability for everyone to produce similarly flawless imagery raises a question: how will brands distinguish themselves?
He suggests that real photographic shoots, and behind-the-scenes footage showing how they are made, may regain importance. This is his assessment of a possible future, rather than an established conclusion for the whole industry.
His central argument for photography’s future rests on its documentary function. Recording how a place, event or encounter looked at a particular moment is different from creating an impressive image afterwards. He identifies news, sports and event photography as fields in which this distinction is particularly clear. In his view, photography’s strength lies not only in what it shows, but in its capacity to testify to a time and a lived experience.
Are filters changing our relationship with our faces?
Social media filters are another subject of the conversation. Yılmaz says he has encountered people who, after becoming accustomed to filtered versions of themselves, find their own faces unfamiliar in real photographs. He presents this as an observation from his studio experience, emphasising the value of preserving distinctive facial features and expression.
The discussion also considers the decline of family albums despite the growth of digital photo archives. His advice is straightforward: rather than simply accumulating pictures on phones and computers, select them, print them and make albums again. Images otherwise lost among thousands of files can then become memories people return to.
Watch the full interview
Episode 13 of Monart Talks, featuring Tamer Yılmaz’s career memories and reflections on photography, is available in our Videos section. The original conversation is in Turkish.
▶ Watch the Tamer Yılmaz interview on GezginFoto
Source and video: MonarT’alks, “Moda Fotoğrafçısı Tamer Yılmaz ile Monart Talks - B13”. Host: Melek Angun. Published: 8 November 2026. Original video.
