Goksin Sipahioglu, founder of Sipa photo agency, dies

Goksin Sipahioglu, photojournalist and founder of the renowned Paris-based photo agency Sipa, died on Wednesday at the age of 84, the company he helped create and led for three decades announced.

Born on December 28, 1926 in the Turkish city of Izmir, Sipahioglu launched Sipa Press in 1973 with his US journalist wife Phyllis Springer and the agency went on to represent some of the world's best known photographers.

A celebrated photographer in his own right, Sipahioglu covered some of the defining news stories of the 20th Century, from the Cuban missile crisis to the Prague Spring and the attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

Sipa was one of three Paris-based agencies, with Gamma and Sygma, that dominated photojournalism in the 1970s, and is still a leading player.

After leading his creation for 30 years, Sipahioglu sold Sipa to Sud Communication -- a media group owned by the French industrialist Pierre Fabre -- in 2001. He stepped down as chairman in 2003.