Thanassis Stavrakis was born in Stockholm in 1973.

He is a graduate of the School of Study and Practice of Photography (EMEF) in Athens and has been working professionally as a photojournalist since August 1992.

From 1992 to 1997, he collaborated with various Greek photo agencies, covering domestic and international news, feature stories, sports, and traveling extensively as a correspondent throughout Greece and abroad. Between 1997 and 1999, he worked for the daily newspaper Ethnos, reporting on major news events both locally and internationally.

From 1999 to 2001, Stavrakis freelanced for Epsilon, the weekly magazine of Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia. During this period, he began his long-standing collaboration with the Associated Press (AP) in Athens as a news photographer. He also contributed to Tachydromos, the magazine of Ta Nea newspaper, from January 2007 to 2010.

Over the past two decades with the Associated Press, Stavrakis has covered a wide array of major global and regional stories, including social movements, political unrest, and humanitarian crises. His assignments have spanned major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, UEFA Euro Championships, FIBA Basketball tournaments, World Swimming Championships, and Formula 1 Grand Prix circuits.

Since 2008, he has played a pivotal role in documenting and coordinating coverage of key events in Greece, including civil unrest in Athens, the financial crisis, the refugee crisis, devastating wildfires, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June 2014, Stavrakis was appointed Chief Photographer for the Associated Press, overseeing photographic coverage in Greece, Cyprus, Albania, and North Macedonia.

Beyond his work in the field, he has contributed to photographic education, teaching news photography at ANT1 Media Lab from October 2018 to June 2020, and since 2017, leading Street Photography workshops for the Municipality of Chalandri and photojournalism workshops at Athens University from March 2023 to May 2025.

He is also the founder and artistic director of Athens Photo World, an annual international photojournalism festival held in Greece, dedicated to celebrating and promoting the power of visual storytelling.