Newborn Jerry, with his father, Gregory Kutschuk, and his mother, Assia Azrilenko, and the rest of the family emigrated to Milan, Italy and then to Berlin, Germany in 1923.
Yuri's aunt, Cecile Kutschuk, worked at the Associated Press with Wilson Hicks, who later became Executive Editor in charge of photography for Life.
In 1936, after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the family fled back to Italy, where they then had to flee from Benito Mussolini's regime to Bombay, India.
In 1939, the family emigrated to United States, arriving to Seattle from Japan on the "Hiye Mare" and taking a train to New York.
Cecile Kutschuk, who had studied photojournalism at the Rhine University, emigrated to the United States in 1935 and started a photo agency in New York City called Pix Publishing.
Cecile put him to work in the Pix darkroom, where he was assistant to photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, George Karger, and others.
In 1945, on V-J Day in Times Square, Cooke was with Eisenstaedt when the latter photographed the iconic image of the nurse and sailor kissing.
"[6] In 1950, Fortune's Art Director Leo Lionni hired Cooke to document Milwaukee factories.
[8] Cooke's award-winning photograph, "Ohio Insane Asylum", and others[9] were selected for the international exhibition, The Family of Man, 1955 curated by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art.
Soon after, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize, and Cooke's photographs appeared in a Life essay, October 27, 1958.
Cooke worked for over 40 years, shooting 47 covers for Sports Illustrated, including many from the early days starting in October 1954.
He photographed 16 Olympics and 42 Kentucky Derbies, including three Triple Crown winners: Secretariat (horse), Seattle Slew, and Affirmed.