Even if you didn't know the name of the leading and multi-awarded Yiannis Behrakis, who, among other things, was the head of the photography department of Reuters in Greece, you would surely have seen some of his images. I can safely bet that in some of your internet browsing you came across his photos of the refugee crisis, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2015.
A father holding his daughter in his arms. He had stated that " When I saw this image, this man holding his daughter, it looked like Superman to me. It's covered in this superman berta-like garbage bag. He is Syrian. He kisses his daughter and gave me the feeling of any father protecting his child. Walking through the storm to reach the dream."
So when the majority of Greek society seemed numb to the refugee flows, Behrakis's images not only fulfilled the purpose of "so that no one can say he didn't know", as he used to say, but also highlighted the distance between identification and of phobia. Commonly, we can easily identify with a figure in a photograph, but what happens when that person is outside our door?
The coverage of the refugee crisis in Europe, of course, is just one piece of his career, a career that spreads like a mosaic and covers wars, poverty and violence, in parts of the world that most of us would refuse to even visit: Kosovo , Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza Strip, Syria, Sierra Leone, Somalia... "But aren't you afraid?" the reasonable question in interviews. With disarming honesty he replied "Obviously I'm scared, but I consider myself very lucky to be there."
The photo he took of himself, thinking that it might be his last report and that if someone found his equipment they would be able to understand what had happened.
In order to escape, he himself entered the jungle, where he wandered for hours, while at intervals he heard the bullets whizzing past him.
"Sometimes I think that if they catch me, they will make me suffer. They will rape me, cut off my genitals, arms, legs. I'm going to cry and start begging them, I'm going to be mad at myself, and then how am I going to be if I live like this? How will I live if I feel like I've become self-absorbed? So I say: I want to die. […] I will rush upon them. I will make them kill me. I won't be caught alive. I will kill myself. How am I going to kill myself? All I have is a camera. I'm going to take the camera and bang it on my head. And that's where I get the laughs."
(As he told us during his speech, he had made a bet with himself to make us laugh, and he effortlessly succeeded more than once.)
"I want at my funeral, to enjoy life and hope"
Reuters after his return from Sierra Leone wanted to pull him out of the war zones. He didn't accept. He took leave to rest, and in six months left for Jerusalem.
He died on March 2, 2019, aged 58.
The best Greek Photojournalist ever lived Yiannis Behrakis.
In the following links you can read some articles about him and see more of his work!
Yiannis was a big inspiration for a lot of photographers because of how important the work he did was but also of his way of living. This images will always serve as inspiration for more and more people to follow his professional footsteps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yannis_Behrakis
https://widerimage.reuters.com/photographer/yannis-behrakis
https://impactalk.gr/en/stories-talk/yannis-behrakis-pictures-world-pictures-truth
https://apw.gr/en/yannis-behrakis-international-award-2/
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/mar/03/pulitzer-prize-winning-reuters-photographer-yannis-behrakis-dies-aged-58