Yannis Behrakis

Yannis Behrakis studied at Middlesex University. The recorded working language is Modern Greek. Employment is recorded with Reuters. Work by Yannis Behrakis is recorded in the collections of MOMus–Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. Distinctions recorded are Pulitzer Prize for Photography, Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents and World Press Photo of the Year.

• Name — Yannis Behrakis • Born — 29 August 1960 • Birthplace — Athens, Greece • Died — 2 March 2019 (aged 58) • Place of death — Athens, Greece • Occupation — Photojournalist • Known for — 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography; 2015 Photojournalist of the year by Reuters

Yannis Behrakis was born in 1960 in Athens. He studied photography in the Athens School of Arts and Technology and received his BA (Honours) from Middlesex University. He worked as a studio photographer in Athens in 1985–86. In 1987 he started a working relation as a contractor for Reuters and in late 1988 he was offered a staff job with the agency based in Athens. His first foreign assignment was in Libya in January 1989. Since then he documented a variety of events including the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the changes in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the first and second Gulf wars in Iraq, the Arab Spring in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, the war in Donbas, the NATO bombing of ISIS in Kobane, Syria, the Greek government-debt crisis and the European migrant crisis in 2015. He also covered the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for many years, earthquakes in Kashmir, Turkey, Greece and Iran and major news events around the world. He also covered four Summer Olympics, the 1994 World Cup in the US and many international sports events. He moved with Reuters to Jerusalem as the chief photographer for Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2008/9. In 2010 he moved back in Greece to cover the Greek government-debt crisis. He took part in group and solo exhibitions in Athens, Thessaloniki, London, Edinburgh, New York City, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Portugal, France and Dubai. In 2000, Behrakis survived an ambush in Sierra Leone where the American reporter Kurt Schork and Spanish cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora of Associated Press Television were killed. He and South African cameraman Mark Chisholm managed to get away from the attackers. In 2016, he led a Thomson Reuters team to win the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Behrakis died after a long battle with cancer in Athens on 2 March 2019, aged 58. Behrakis is survived by his daughter Rebecca, son Dimitri and his wife, Elisavet.