Yannis Behrakis: Pulitzer-winning photographer dies

  • Published

Yannis Behrakis, a Pulitzer-prize winning photojournalist for Reuters news agency, has died of cancer at the age of 58.

Born in Athens in 1960, Behrakis covered conflicts and natural disasters around the world in a career spanning more than thirty years.

His team's coverage of the refugee crisis won the prestigious Pulitzer prize in 2016.

Here is a selection of some of his work.

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Behrakis covered major events for decades, here capturing Kurdish refugees fleeing near the Iraqi-Turkish border in the 1990s

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Behrakis's work took him around the world, including to Somalia during the US Operation Restore Hope in 1992

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Conflict was an important part of his work, including coverage of the wars in the Balkans

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

He photographed Chechen rebels firing on Russian troops in Grozny in 1995

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Here, Behrakis captured the moment government troops took an 18-year-old rebel in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

He took a self-portrait after surviving an ambush by rebels in Sierra Leone that year, in which two other journalists died

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

An Israeli soldier is caught on film here walking in fields near the Gaza Strip in 2008

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Behrakis covered the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, photographing US troops here in 2010

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

He also covered unrest and protests around the world, here taking pictures of demonstrators in Cairo in 2011

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Behrakis captured a stand-off near Tahrir Square, where demonstrators gathered against the Egyptian government

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Closer to home, anti-austerity demonstrators took part in violent protests in Greece the same year

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

His work also had a lighter tone, including photos of the Ukrainian synchronised swimming team during an Olympics qualification event in 2004

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

But it was his team's coverage of the refugee crisis, like this one of a Syrian family off the Greek island of Lesbos, that won them the Pulitzer prize

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Behrakis is survived by his daughter Rebecca, son Dimitri and his wife Elisavet

.