Goodbye, Göksin
Every day for more than thirty years I passed by your office on my way home to say, “Goodbye, Göksin.”
Your office was the heart of SIPA. We spent three-quarters of our time there. For me it was the center of the world! With its three telephones and ten televisions set permanently to the news, its never-ending hustle and bustle, I felt like I had a front-row seat at the world’s stage.
The door to your office and agency was open late into the night, open to anyone and everyone. That was the spirit of Sipa! You used to say: “First, I’m a journalist. Then, a photographer. And then the director of this agency.” We photographers had to learn photography on our own. But we learned journalism from you. Thanks to you we became journalists, reporters and photographers all at once. With you we lived through the golden age of French photo agencies from 1970 to 2000.
I thank you for your enthusiasm, for your enduring youth, for your professionalism. And I thank you for giving me the incurable fever of curiosity.
Thank you, Göksin.
To Phyllis, for putting up with all of us.
Jean-Gabriel Barthélemy, SIPA photographer from 1972 to 2005
