While you may be asking yourself exactly what this woman's business is here among these crowds, she continues taking her photographs; after all, it is her job – she's a photojournalist.
Here is a look at the impact women have had on the difficult, stress-inducing but extremely gratifying career of photojournalism through the stories of a range of Turkey's female photojournalists:
Eleni Küreman was the first female photojournalist in Turkey. She began her career in journalism in 1947 with The Associated Press, and then went on to work for newspapers such as the Son Posta, Yeni Şafak, Vakit and Son Dakika. In 1972, Küreman retired from her job with the Yeni Gün newspaper. Küreman, who died in 2001, was married to another journalist, Kayhan Küreman. Looking back, it's possible to say that Küreman had been like the mother of Turkish journalistic photography. Just as the first Turkish female military pilot was Sabiha Gökçen and the first Turkish female deputy was Satı Kadın, Küreman was our nation's first female photojournalist. In those years, being a photojournalist was very difficult, and some of her male colleagues used to mock her efforts. After all, she was getting herself mixed up in what had essentially been a man's domain. In any case, Kayhan Küreman tells us something about his late wife's life story.
When speaking about his wife, Kayhan Küreman chooses his words carefully. His first comments are that his wife was a very special person who was always able to do anything she put her mind to. Kayhan talks about how when his wife Eleni first started her career as a photo journalist for AP, she was able to take non-flash photos with her Leica camera with a level of skill that surprised all her peers. He continues: "Eleni was in love with photography. She took great interest not only in political and daily events, but also in football. Unlike other photojournalists at football matches, she would always shoot her photographs from behind the goalposts, especially at Fener-bahçe matches. The reason for this was that she wanted to capture the great plunges and saves made by the Fenerbahçe goal-keeper at the time, Cihat Arman. Some fans used to get angry with Eleni when Cihat would let a goal in, saying ‘you unlucky woman, get out from behind the goal!' Still, she was like a butterfly in a beehive."
Kayhan talks about how his wife gave up her career as retirement approached. He says: "This career that she had given her life over to, in the end, was very unfaithful to her. At the time, a huge fire broke out at the Hippodrome in İstanbul, and there was great panic. As luck would have it, Eleni was there that day, and she took some very good photographs, which she then brought to somewhere near Taksim to develop. She developed them, but then she locked up the developing room, leaving the developed photos there to go talk to someone at the newspaper. When she left, some of her colleagues, whose names were kept secret, broke into the room and pillaged through all of Eleni's photographs, including the ones from the Hippodrome fire. After this terrible event, Eleni really turned against that job of hers and, a short while later, she ended her career." In fact, as Kayhan Bey describes it, after this sad event, Eleni was never again able to pick up her camera and take another photo.
After Eleni departed from the photojournalism arena, it was left depleted of any female professionals for many years. Much later, women like Mine Tuduk, Bahar Mandan, Ayten Kaya, Gamze Kutluk and Ceylan Çetin stepped forward to take up where Eleni had left off.
All your fatigue turns into joy
Ayten Kaya has been a photojournalist with the Zaman newspaper for the past seven years. A graduate of the Yıldız Technical University photography department, Kaya never misses a sporting event in Turkey. She begins by explaining, "The best part of sports photography is that the start and finishing times are quite clear in advance." She goes on: "We go to the stadium half an hour before the start of the matches. The best location to grab is behind the goalpost where the favored team will be making their goals. The reason for this is that the newspaper always places the most importance on these photos. The equipment I use is quite heavy. I myself am 43 kilos, but my equipment is 17 kilos. You can imagine what happens to me when I have to run. The hardest part is working when it's windy and rainy. At least the machines I use are heavy so that they aren't affected by the wind. I guess when you take all this into consideration you might be tempted to ask ‘So what is so great about taking sports photos?' But when you actually enter the stadium and feel the excitement of the spectators in the stands, and then you are able to capture a great instant with your camera, well then all your fatigue turns quickly to joy."
Kaya also notes that she has never received negative reactions from her male colleagues, though she is not as generous to the spectators at matches, about whom she says: "The fans sometimes throw things onto the field when they're angry, and generally these things are aimed at the photojournalists working on the sidelines. So it would be great if once in a while they threw flowers!"
A profession synonymous with freedom
Mine Tuduk, another Turkish female photojournalist, graduated from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University's photography department and entered straight into working life. With lots of experience working in the different magazine sections at Milliyet and Hürriyet, these days Tuduk works for the Referans newspaper. Tuduk says she loves photography and that she sees it as synonymous with freedom. She talks about the special category that women in this profession fall into by way of their gender, describing a "tragicomic" situation that happened to her once. She says: "It's sometimes very difficult and it's sometimes a great pleasure being a female photojournalist. When I first began, I had particular difficulty with action photographs. One time, I was snapping photos at a very tense protest and -- holding my camera in hand -- I tripped and fell. Before I even knew what had happened, one of the protestors was picking me up by one arm, while a police officer from the Special Forces was helping me up by the other arm. They saved me from being crushed by the angry crowds behind me. After saving me, though, the police officer started chasing the protestor."
Bahar Mandan is another female photojournalist who graduated from Yıldız Technical University's photography department. She spends most of her time taking politically oriented photographs. She began with the Turkish magazine Aksiyon and now works for Zaman. She is largely involved in stressful jobs such following the prime minister around the country and taking his photograph. Mandan describes the warm reception she receives as a female photojournalist, explaining: "People act very warmly towards me, especially at social events. In fact, when I am taking photographs, I can move around more comfortably than some of my male counterparts." Mandan sums up just how much she loves her profession when she notes that she doesn't even regret jumping over a garden wall in Gebze in 2007 to snap a photo of the prime minister. She hurt her back badly enough that she had to have surgery on it but maintains, "If I had to do it all over again, I would still jump that wall."
