Gökşin Sipahioğlu: Right Place Right Time

In the exhibition "Right Place, Right Time”, Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery presented 119 photographs by Gökşin Sipahioğlu, a prominent name of photojournalism in Turkey and the globe for more than half a century.

The first freelance journalist after Hikmet Feridun Es, Gökşin Sipahioğlu has contributed to development of Turkish journalism and has become a world-known photojournalist who has a nose for "good news" and a lust for scoop. He captured many major events through his lens, from the 1956 Suez Crisis to Mao’s China, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tragedy at the Munich Olympics and the 1968 Paris riots. Known as the manager mostly devoted to journalism among all managers of photojournalism agencies, Gökşin had his name written in the pages of history as the founder, manager and president of Sipa Press Photography Agency. In addition to forming an archive of over 20 million photos covering the period 1945 to the present, Sipahioğlu mentored many of today’s renowned photojournalists.

The exhibition consisted of works by Gökşin Sipahioğlu, who is defined as "The dinosaur of photojournalism", "The Turkish Sultan of photojournalism", "The Prince of Scoops", "The Last Adventurer of Photojournalists and a living legend". Special catalogue prepared for the exhibition also contained texts by Yaşar Kemal, Ara Güler, Güneş Karabuda, Altan Öymen, Bülent Akarcalı, Coşkun Aral, Mehmet Ali Kışlalı, Osman N. Karaca, Nail Güreli, Özgen Acar and Tufan Türenç.

Curator: Engin Özendes