Yannis Behrakis, a legend of a photojournalist, dead at 58

[littlemissmartypants]

Shocked and saddened to hear the passing of Yannis Behrakis, a legend of a photojournalist & one of ⁦⁦Reuters⁩’ finest. I was privileged to have worked alongside him in 2014, covering the crisis in Syrian town of Kobani. He has hundreds of iconic shots like this. RIP. 💔 https://t.co/j40DObQnB5

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[marble falls]

1. For those of us who don't know enough about Yannis Behrakis ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yannis_Behrakis

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Yannis Behrakis (Greek: Γιάννης Μπεχράκης; 1960 – 2 March 2019), was a Greek photojournalist and a Senior editor with Reuters.

Biography

Yannis Behrakis was born in 1960 in Athens, Greece. 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 on 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, thee first and second Gulf wars in Iraq, the Arab Spring in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, the civil war in Ukraine, the Nato bombing of ISIS in Kobane, Syria, the Greek financial crisis and the refugee 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 financial crisis.

He took part in group and solo exhibitions in Athens, Thessaloniki, London, Edinburgh, New York, 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.[1] He and South African cameraman Mark Chisholm managed to get away from the attackers.[2] In 2016, he led a Thomson Reuters team to win the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.[3]

Behrakis died in Athens on 2 March 2019, aged 58.[4]
Awards

As a member of the Photography Staff of Reuters, Pulitzer Prize, Breaking News Photography, 2016.[3]
European News Photographer of the Year, European Fuji Awards (in 1998, 2002 and 2003)[5]
Greek News Photographer of the year, seven times by the Greek Fuji Awards[5]
Overseas Press Club of America photography award (1999) [6]
1st prize in the General News Stories category, by the World Press Photo Foundation for his work on Kosovo (2000) [6][7]
Botsis Foundation Award (2000) [6]
Three times the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents.[8]
2004, 2009, 2013, 2014,[9] 2015,[10] and 2016[11] awards in the China International Press Photo Contest
2012 award of excellence in Best of Photojournalism (BOP) in General news stories[citation needed]
2013 and 2015 awards in General news category of Pictures of the Year international (POYi) by the Missouri School of Journalism[12][13]
2015- Photographer of the year by The Guardian newspaper[14]
2015- Photojournalist of the year by Reuters[citation needed]
2016 - Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards, first prize[15]

Some photos:





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https://resize-parismatch.ladmedia.fr/r/901,,forcex/img/var/news/storage/images/paris-match/actu/international/yannis-behrakis-recompense-pour-son-travail-sur-les-migrants-928657/photo-prise-a-lesbos-le-17-septembre/13224445-1-fre-FR/Photo-prise-a-Lesbos-le-17-septembre.jpg



https://resize3-parismatch.ladmedia.fr/r/901,,forcex/img/var/news/storage/images/paris-match/actu/international/yannis-behrakis-recompense-pour-son-travail-sur-les-migrants-928657/photo-prise-sur-l-ile-de-kos-en-aout-2015/13224653-1-fre-FR/Photo-prise-sur-l-ile-de-Kos-en-aout-2015.jpg

He had an eye for refugees and the children caught in the middle.

[2naSalit]

2. ...

How did he die?

[littlemissmartypants]

3. He had a long battle with cancer. nt

[2naSalit]

4. Oh.

Thanks. That's sad. A few of my friends are in that battle, hard to watch but not as hard as being the one fighting it.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. I understand. I lost a friend in February.

I knew at Christmas she wasn't going to make it but she didn't want to give up and was extremely debilitated in the end. She had so many surgeries, she was really butchered. I miss hearing her voice.

[2naSalit]

6. My condolences.

I am anticipating that two won't see the end of this year, one has promise, at this point, of hanging in there for a few more years.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Thank you.

I hope things work out.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R