Xposure 2019: Petros Giannakouris…Reporting Crisis from His Doorstep

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For award-winning Greek photojournalist Petros Giannakouris, getting in and out of war zones, exploring the complexities of the refugee crisis or capturing the glamour of celebrities and marking the moment when sporting legends are born, has always been a way of life in his career as an Associated Press staff photographer for the past 17 years.

In a talk he delivered at photography festival XPOSURE 2019 at Expo Centre Sharjah, Giannakouris spoke of having to constantly switch from ‘light to darkness’ as he covered his varied assignments. “It is the way we photographers learn how to breathe,” he said, depicting this dichotomy with two powerful images taken in March 2008, just 15 days apart.

One captures the horrors of war 60kms south of Baghdad while the other is a picture of poetic grace depicting the Olympic Games’ flame lighting ceremony at Ancient Olympia. He recounted how the US army convoy he was with was hit by two roadside bombs, wounding five men. “Back home in Athens a few days later, I remember thinking how lucky I felt to be capturing the image of a beautiful ceremony, a symbol of peace and culture for the biggest sport event in the world.”

Showing images taken from different conflict zones around the world – depicting scenes of brutal violence, agony, pain and suffering, Giannakouris said he always felt grateful to have a place to come home to in Athens where he could mentally recover and get back to his ‘normal’ life.

Just a year later, the unfolding of a global economic nightmare in the form of a financial crisis brought the violence to his doorstep as Greece, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, unleashed its fury through rioting and violence. “To secure its bailout, the several economic policies adopted by the country led to citizens losing one-third of their incomes, saw the slashing of health and education budgets, repeated cuts in pensions and closure of thousands of businesses,” he said.

“The ‘big story’ had now come home as a volcano of unstoppable violence erupted across my country,” narrated Giannakouris. In the weeks and months that followed, “this violence became a fixture of my daily life. I couldn’t believe I was not on assignment, but at home.”

“My gas mask and my helmet had become as vital as my camera and lenses,” he said, as he continued talking about the daunting task of capturing the widespread violence in his hometown.

“I had to learn to live with the violence, not run away from it,” he said. “I had to learn to accept it and expect it as well.”

However, he warned of the situation when violence becomes the new ‘normal’. “This is very dangerous – the normalisation of violence,” he said.

Organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), XPOSURE 2019 runs until Sunday, 22nd September. From climate change to fashion, politics to nature and wildlife and human disasters as well as natural calamities, the festival covers the entire range of life on this planet through pictures.