Semiha Es

Semiha Es was born into a modest family to Bekir and his wife Lütfiye at Vefa quarter of Fatih district in İstanbul in 1912.[1][2] She had a sister.[2] At the age of 15, she jobbed as a switchboard operator in a telephone company to financially support her family. During a beauty contest application, still underage, she met Hikmet Feridun Es, a well known Turkish journalist. She eloped and married to Hikmet Geridun Es as she learned that her parents were prepared to give her away in marriage with someone she did not know.[3]

Semiha Es felt longing as her husband was away on journalistic trips from time to time. He decided to teach her to take photos so that she could be with him on journeys. Their first collaboration was in Hollywood, California. She took photos while her husband was interviewing the celebrities of that time, among them future President Ronald Reagan.[3]

She accompanied her spouse when he was sent to Korea as a war correspondent by the daily Hürriyet to report about the Turkish Army Brigade's involvement in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953.[3] She served as a war photographer.[4] She was five days a week in the front in military uniform,[5] spent the weekends in Tokyo, Japan, where they were flown by military aircraft. Her photos began to be published in the newspaper from November 5, 1950.[2] However, later it is revealed that only some of her photographs were actually published. These were the photos, which showed heroism of the soldiers. On the other hand, the photos reflecting the tragedy of the war were deliberately edited out.[6][7] She became so the first female war photographer of Turkey.[2][5][7] Semiha Es was five years at the Vietnam War,[2] and remembers that she experienced the Vietnam War was more horrific than the Korean War.[3]

She shot photos while she traveled around the globe with her spouse for the newspaper.[3]

Semiha Es lost her husband in 1992, and lived her later years in loneliness because childless.[3] Her life story was told in a documentary film titled Nisvan- Tarihe Adını Yazdıran Kadınlar ("Nisvan-The Women, who Made Their Mark").[3]

She died at the age of 100 in her home at Balmumcu, Beşiktaş in İstanbul on 11 December 2012.[1] She was laid to rest in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery next to her husband.[5]

On 28 November 2003, an international symposium, the "Semiha Es - Women Photographers International Symposium" organized by the Sabancı University, was held to commemorate her.[1] During the event, the concert pianist Ayşe Tütüncü performed her musical work named "Second Eye: Women Photographers in Turkey".[8]