Petros Giannakouris is an award-winning Greek photojournalist. He is an Associated Press staff photographer based in Athens since 2003. For several years he has been documenting his county’s financial crisis, and among others, the refugee flow into Europe.
Petros was born in 1974 and obtained a degree in photography from the College of Applied Photography in Athens.He has worked since 1995 for several newspapers and local news agencies, before joining the Associated Press.
He has documented an array of major stories in Greece, as well as international assignments including stories in Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Albania, all the Balkan countries, Turkey, France, Brazil, Japan, Pakistan as well as the war in Iraq (2007-2009), the aftertmath of the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon in 2006 , Afghanistan after Taliban takeover in 2021, the war in Ukraine in 2022 -2023 and the Israel -Hamas war in 2023.
He has also covered major international sporting events including 4 Olympic games.
Giannakouris work has received numerous international awards, including PX3 Prix De and La Photographie, 2011, China International Photo Contest, 2013, Picture of the Year, 2015 2023, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, 2016 and 2021, The National Press Photographers Association Awards, 2016 and 2021, RNA Excellence Religion Reporting, 2023 and he was also a Pulitzer prize finalist in Feature Photography 2023
Taken in late 2021, just months after the Taliban’s chaotic takeover of Kabul on August 15, 2021, these photos show an already war-torn country, its economy once kept alive by international donations, teetering on the brink of collapse.
The World Health Organization warned that millions of children were suffering from malnutrition, and the United Nations cautioned that 97% of Afghans would soon be living below the poverty line.
Nearly 80% of the previous Afghan government’s budget came from the international community. That money, cut off after the Taliban seized power, funded hospitals, schools, factories, and government ministries. There is no money in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.
For many of Afghanistan’s poorest, bread became their only staple food. The statistics provided by the United Nations were grim: nearly 24 million people in Afghanistan, about 60% of the population, were suffering from acute hunger. As many as 8.7 million Afghans were facing famine.
Schooling for girls in Taliban Afghanistan is erratic, with girls generally banned from education beyond Grade 6.
The country’s humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by severe drought in recent years, made worse by climate change. Many regions are experiencing acute shortages of water for drinking, agriculture and livestock, and millions of people lack access to safe water.
For many Afghans, the only solution is to try to leave the country. Thousands have poured out of Afghanistan into neighboring Iran in desperation.
In the years since these images were taken, the country has slipped further into despair. The Taliban have tightened restrictions, especially on women, and the international aid so desperately needed by so many remains elusive.
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