As the full extent of Greece’s financial crisis has unfolded over the last three years, the Greek government has been forced to impose one austerity measure after another: salaries and pensions have been cut. Taxes raised.

In a deteriorating economy, businesses have collapsed at a dizzying rate and unemployment has soared.

As life has grown harder, thousands of Greeks have turned to the streets to voice their pain and confusion. Many of these protests have been peaceful. But often, too, violence has broken out.

Angelos Tzortzinis, 28, has been in the streets recording these often unpredictable events since 2009. Taking photos during demonstrations in Athens can be very difficult — tear gas clouds create a suffocating atmosphere, people without gas masks run in all directions, while protesters who have masks hurl stones and Molotov cocktails.

To get his pictures, Mr. Tzortzinis says he must stand between the riot police and the protesters, every moment exposed to violence from either side. Many times photographers have been attacked by the riot police. But many times, too, they have lost their equipment after being attacked by angry protesters.

One of the most frightening episodes was on Feb. 23, 2011, he said, when police officers on motorbikes stormed into then Syntagma Square in front of Parliament, trying to disperse a crowd of demonstrators.

Angelos Tzortzinis

But after a police officer rammed one protester with his bike, another officer slipped on the marble surface of the square and fell with his bike next to him. All of a sudden, someone in the crowd threw a Molotov cocktail that exploded on the officer’s helmet. In a total panic he tried to remove the helmet, screaming and calling for help from his fellow officers as he ran toward Mr. Tzortzinis.

Mr. Tzortzinis was born in Athens and said that it was hard to watch his country in such a state. But he added that he believed it is important to record the demonstrators’ anger and frustration.

“Unfortunately I am not so optimistic for the future that will follow the current situation,” he said. “The political decisions of the past decades led the country to a very difficult path. A huge collective effort and a total reconstruction of institutions and a change of mentality is needed to leave behind some old habits.”