Photojournalist Yannis Behrakis’s goal? ‘Be there’
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Yannis Behrakis shared his mission with students Monday evening: “I want to be there,” he said. “I want to be the eyewitness and be the voice of the persecuted ones.”
The Reuters photographer has done just that, documenting conflict from some of the world’s most dangerous places in an effort to shed light on global crises from war to migration.
Behrakis is the latest in a succession of journalists to talk to professor of practice Tom French’s Behind the Prize class, which brings prestigious prize winners or nominees to campus to talk about their work.
This was Behrakis’ second time to talk to French’s class. Right after his spring 2016, he learned he and his Reuters colleagues had won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. The organization cited the news service’s “gripping photographs, each with its own voice, that follow migrant refugees hundreds of miles across uncertain boundaries to unknown destinations.”
Behrakis previously had amassed numerous awards during a career that spans 20-plus years of traveling to document world events. His dream formed at a young age, he said, recalling his desire to travel and explore. When he received a Time-Life encyclopedia of photography and watched the movie Under Fire, he thought photojournalism could help him do that.
“I was discovering this talent I had inside me about how I see the world,” Behrakis said.
He studied photography, joined Reuters in his native Athens in 1988, and soon was covering world events in Eastern Europe and the Mideast. From earthquakes in Kashmir to conflict in Chechnya to Arab Spring in Egypt, Behrakis was on the ground.
He said he learned to survive by gaining trust from those around him with humor, honesty and humility. He said he never tries to trick people and never forgets the trauma he sees while working.
“My shield is the fact that I believe that I am doing something very important,” Behrakis said.
He is a war photographer, but he considers himself a peace photographer because his photos promote peace, he said. His photos show what is happening in the world, and he said his aim is to bring justice to those who are oppressed by war.
Behrakis said he thinks the world needs good journalists who are independent, ethical and dedicated.
“Everybody has some power, and collective power can change things,” he said.
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