A life spent for news photography
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Selahattin Sönmez
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 01, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - Journalist and news photographer Gökşin Sipahioğlu, the founder the SİPA Press photo agency, has spent his career documenting earth-shaking events by pressing the shutter in the right place at the right time. ’Photos record history,’ he says. ’They freeze everything there’
A successful news photographer needs to be ever alert for opportunities, and 82-year-old Gökşin Sipahioğlu has missed few over his long career.
The founder of one of the world’s largest photo agencies, the Turkish journalist was also the only Western reporter who managed to get into Cuba during the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis Ğ and has been an eyewitness to wars, protests and military coups.
A profession like his suits only a certain kind of person, a devoted one who can combine training with talent and passion, and Sipahioğlu is assuredly a man of that type. "Photos are always an important element of the news," Sipahioğlu said, explaining how the dramatic power of an image can help a reader truly grasp the moment portrayed. "You look at the photo and it absorbs you. A photo records history, it freezes everything there."
Value of news photography
Sipahioğlu began his journalism career as a sports reporter at the daily İstanbul Ekspress and was promoted to an editorial post in 1954. In 1957, he founded his own newspaper, Yeni Gazete. "I used large photos in the daily and this increased its sales rate," he said, pointing out another value of news photography.
"When television was invented, some said photography would come to an end, yet the opposite has proved to be the case," Sipahioğlu said, adding that television images are on screen for just a few seconds, but a photograph is forever.
As a journalist, Sipahioğlu spent many years closely following historical events both at home and abroad. In 1960, he was an eyewitness to Turkey’s military coup. "When [former Prime Minister] Adnan Menderes was arrested, the National Unity Committee offered photos from Yassıada [the site of the trials] for sale in order to make money," Sipahioğlu said. "Daily Hürriyet purchased almost all the photos for 100,000 Turkish Liras. A news agency purchased the remaining few, for which we paid [an additional] 10,000 Turkish liras. I enlarged one of the photos of Menderes and published it on the front page of daily Vatan. The paper sold well in just an hour."
The world has seen many events, from the Arab-Israel War of 1956 to the 1968 student protests and general strike in Paris, through Sipahioğlu’s eyes. A photograph of Egyptian soldiers wounded in the Sinai war of 1956 was his first big scoop. But what made Sipahioğlu such a successful news photographer?
"First of all, a news photographer should not take sides," he said. "When you take sides, it means you are not a journalist. A good news photographer should be impartial and just capture the moment without thinking."
Sipahioğlu also noted the importance of "scoops" in a photographer’s success. "Besides the routine things, a good news photographer should photograph what others cannot. Luck plays a key role in the scoop," he said, adding that a good news photographer should be the first one to arrive on the scene and the last to leave.
Competition is fierce in his profession, as an anecdote Sipahioğlu shared shows. "When Jacqueline Kennedy came to Turkey, journalists were not given permission to take photos," he said. "I called [fellow Turkish photographer] Ara Güler and we went to Sultanahmet Mosque, which was not yet closed for Kennedy’s visit. I asked Ara which aperture setting I should use and he told me to use f5.6. When my photos were developed, they came out black, while Ara’s images were clear."
’My dream was to photograph Saddam’
In addition to all the earth-shaking events he documented by pressing the shutter in the right place at the right time, Sipahioğlu also founded the photography agency SİPA Press in 1973. Due to financial problems, he handed the company over to a French media group in 2001. Former French President Jacques Chirac honored Sipahioğlu with the Legion d'Honneur award last year.
Before he left the agency, Sipahioğlu said, his dream as a news photographer was to find and photograph Saddam Hussein. "But a short time after I left the agency, they found the man and photographed him," Sipahioğlu said, adding that photographing Osama Bin Laden could be a great goal for a photojournalist today.
The founder of one of the world’s largest photo agencies, the Turkish journalist was also the only Western reporter who managed to get into Cuba during the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis Ğ and has been an eyewitness to wars, protests and military coups.
A profession like his suits only a certain kind of person, a devoted one who can combine training with talent and passion, and Sipahioğlu is assuredly a man of that type. "Photos are always an important element of the news," Sipahioğlu said, explaining how the dramatic power of an image can help a reader truly grasp the moment portrayed. "You look at the photo and it absorbs you. A photo records history, it freezes everything there."
Value of news photography
Sipahioğlu began his journalism career as a sports reporter at the daily İstanbul Ekspress and was promoted to an editorial post in 1954. In 1957, he founded his own newspaper, Yeni Gazete. "I used large photos in the daily and this increased its sales rate," he said, pointing out another value of news photography.
"When television was invented, some said photography would come to an end, yet the opposite has proved to be the case," Sipahioğlu said, adding that television images are on screen for just a few seconds, but a photograph is forever.
As a journalist, Sipahioğlu spent many years closely following historical events both at home and abroad. In 1960, he was an eyewitness to Turkey’s military coup. "When [former Prime Minister] Adnan Menderes was arrested, the National Unity Committee offered photos from Yassıada [the site of the trials] for sale in order to make money," Sipahioğlu said. "Daily Hürriyet purchased almost all the photos for 100,000 Turkish Liras. A news agency purchased the remaining few, for which we paid [an additional] 10,000 Turkish liras. I enlarged one of the photos of Menderes and published it on the front page of daily Vatan. The paper sold well in just an hour."
The world has seen many events, from the Arab-Israel War of 1956 to the 1968 student protests and general strike in Paris, through Sipahioğlu’s eyes. A photograph of Egyptian soldiers wounded in the Sinai war of 1956 was his first big scoop. But what made Sipahioğlu such a successful news photographer?
"First of all, a news photographer should not take sides," he said. "When you take sides, it means you are not a journalist. A good news photographer should be impartial and just capture the moment without thinking."
Sipahioğlu also noted the importance of "scoops" in a photographer’s success. "Besides the routine things, a good news photographer should photograph what others cannot. Luck plays a key role in the scoop," he said, adding that a good news photographer should be the first one to arrive on the scene and the last to leave.
Competition is fierce in his profession, as an anecdote Sipahioğlu shared shows. "When Jacqueline Kennedy came to Turkey, journalists were not given permission to take photos," he said. "I called [fellow Turkish photographer] Ara Güler and we went to Sultanahmet Mosque, which was not yet closed for Kennedy’s visit. I asked Ara which aperture setting I should use and he told me to use f5.6. When my photos were developed, they came out black, while Ara’s images were clear."
’My dream was to photograph Saddam’
In addition to all the earth-shaking events he documented by pressing the shutter in the right place at the right time, Sipahioğlu also founded the photography agency SİPA Press in 1973. Due to financial problems, he handed the company over to a French media group in 2001. Former French President Jacques Chirac honored Sipahioğlu with the Legion d'Honneur award last year.
Before he left the agency, Sipahioğlu said, his dream as a news photographer was to find and photograph Saddam Hussein. "But a short time after I left the agency, they found the man and photographed him," Sipahioğlu said, adding that photographing Osama Bin Laden could be a great goal for a photojournalist today.