Gökşin Sipahioğlu

Gökşin Sipahioğlu (28 December 1926 – 5 October 2011) was a Turkish photographer and journalist who founded the renowned Paris-based photo agency Sipa Press. He spent most of his life in Paris where the French media dubbed him "le Grand Turc".^[1] He also helped found the Kadiköy Sports Club, now best known for the Efes Pilsen basketball team. He was the editor of the Istanbul Express and played an active role in the riot against non-Muslims of Turkey on 6-7 September 1955. In an interview conducted in 1991 regarding the 1955 riots he stated that; "The attacks of 6/7 September were certainly planned by the Special Operations Unit. It was an extremely premediated operation and it accomplished its objective. Let me ask you; wasn't it a extraordinarily successful action?".^[2]

Early life and education

Sipahioğlu was born on December 28, 1926, in Izmir, Turkey. He attended the Lycée Saint-Joseph in Istanbul and later studied journalism at Istanbul University.^[1]

Career

Sipahioğlu became a frontline photojournalist from the 1950s onwards. He received international recognition for his 1956 photos of wounded Egyptian soldiers after Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula during the Suez crisis.^[1]

Sipahioğlu was one of the few Western reporters or photographers in Havana during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 . He conveyed the tension of the time and many of his photographs of the crisis appeared on the front pages of countless world newspapers.^[1]

In 1968 Sipahioğlu 's photographs of riots that had taken place in Paris, between police and student protesters, became enduring images of the uprising. This led Sipahioğlu to work for the major international photo agencies Black Star and Gamma.^[1]

In 1972 he was sent to Munich to cover the Olympics where he found himself chronicling the Palestinian attack on Israeli athletes. His international recognition for these pictures led him to launch Sipa Press the following year, in 1973, along with his partner Phyllis Springer. The Sipa agency went on to represent some of the world's best known photographers.^[1]

In 2001 he sold Sipa Press to Sud Communication, owned by the industrialist Pierre Fabre, but stayed on as chairman until his retirement in 2003.^[1]

Awards and recognition

In January 2007, the French president Jacques Chirac appointed him Knight of the Legion of Honour.^[1]

Personal life

Sipahioğlu married Phyllis Springer in 2002. He died on Monday 5 October 2011, in a hospital in Paris at the age of 84.^[3]

References