Eyewitness - Yannis Bechrakis

At MOMus-Museum of Photography of Thessaloniki (Warehouse A', Pier A', Port of Thessaloniki) the photography exhibition "Eyewitness / Yannis Bechrakis" is presented until Sunday 8 October, 2023.


"My mission is to make sure that nobody can say: I didn't know." These words by prominent photojournalist Yannis Behrakis encapsulate both his passion for photojournalism and his journalistic ethics. The same words also epitomize his coverage of global crises and events over a period of thirty years, in places like Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Libya, Greece, Bosnia and Iran. This coverage of events that Behrakis was an eyewitness to are at the center of the exhibition "Eyewitness / Yannis Behrakis", presented at the MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Warehouse A', Pier A', Thessaloniki port area), from 15 June to 08 October 2023 (exhibition opening: Thursday 15 June 2023 / 19:30). As a war correspondent with the Reuters news agency, Yannis Behrakis witnessed some of the most turbulent and historical moments of our time, received the most prestigious international awards for his work and inspired a younger generation of Greek photojournalists. The exhibition at the MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography presents Behrakis’ pictures first shown in the exhibition honouring his work that took place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center as part of the 2019 edition of the Athens Photo World, accompanied by screenings, early material, magazines and equipment from the photojournalist’s personal archive, with kind permission from his family. A map depicting all the wars and crisis zones Behrakis covered, equipment illustrating the evolution of photography from the analog to the digital era, videos with interviews and presentations featuring Behrakis himself, texts that provide new readings of his photographs, are all presented in an endeavour to capture and express a recurrent feature of his work: his simplicity of composition, his expressive immediacy, his choice of the decisive moment, his respect towards the integrity of the event.
The Museum remains closed: 15.08 August 15 - Assumption of the Virgin Mary 26.10 St. Demetrios 28.10 National Anniversary