The newly opened art and dance center Éléphant Paname and SIPA invite you to an exhibition held in honor of one of the major figures in the world of photography on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his death.
Dear Gökşin,
When you left us five years ago, you were undoubtedly right not to wait till your 90th birthday, which we would celebrate in late December. You dealt us a heavy blow, and are not easy to forget, as the present exhibition clearly shows. However, I am not sure that the changing world lives up to your own sense of what life is. Besides the likes of Dylan who didn’t go to Stockholm to pick up his Nobel Prize, what’s left of the European secular libertarian ideals meant to protect the weak which “le grand Turc” photographed in the streets of Paris in May 68? “This is just a beginning…,” one could read back then on the walls.
For you, Gökşin, this is just the beginning of your international acclaim received in recognition of your talent and the founding of Sipa Press. Sipa was a veritable breeding ground for hordes of headstrong talents, of “mercenaries” whom you alone, master balancer, knew how to launch into the midst of the most sordid conflicts around the globe, never sure whether Match, Le Fig Mag, VSD, Newsweek, or Stern would back you up. I am not sure whether you would have been satisfied with magazines given over to digital media, instant gratification, and gratuitousness. Nor am I sure whether you, more French than Turkish, would have been able to stand to see your country sink into darkness, to the point of becoming number one prison in the world for journalists.
You have left us wonderful memories, shared by those reunited today, of prestigious exhibitions, such as Sipa comme Sipahioğlu in 1999 at Perpignant’s “Visa pour l’image”; Right Place, Right Time in Istanbul Modern in 2006; the MEP retrospective Gökşin Sipahioğlu, Monsieur Sipa in 2008; followed by the current exhibition ÉP invite Sipa.
One memory keeps coming back: I was head of VSD, the magazine was in serious crisis, and our suppliers were cutting us off. To boost my morale, you invited me to a high-end restaurant, where you had your own table, to tell me, “it goes without saying, Sipa will keep supplying VSD with images,” when everybody else was asking me to pay through my nose. That was truly classy! At your side, I had the pleasure in 2008 of editing Mai 68: L’histoire en photos for Éditions Scali. There are so many memories of the last adventurous, romantic media editor, seared forever into my brain.
François Siegel
François Siegel is editor of the magazine We Demain.
Photographs by Gökşin Sipahioğlu
From December 16, 2016 until January 16, 2017
Éléphant Paname
10 Rue Volney
75002 Paris
France
