🔗 Share this article Esteemed Photographer Brian Harris Obituary: An Existence Behind the Lens The photojournalist B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become among the most esteemed British photojournalists of his era. A Global Professional Journey He journeyed the world as a freelance or a employee for Fleet Street titles, documenting such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and throughout Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and several US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the rural areas around his Essex home. By his own calculation he shot more than two million photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing historical and new images each day on social media up to a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to give a talk on his life and work. Notable Projects Tales from a rollercoaster career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from heatstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body. His 1983’s images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the sea on Brighton beach were published across eight columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an exasperated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper. Professional Highlights He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s youngest ever staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for nearly a decade, including reporting of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as editing of his strongest images of famine in Africa. In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc recording the fall of communism. He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and major projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which resulted in an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered. Early Life and Start Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later helped his son build a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, learning useful skills in carpentry and metalwork, before leaving at 16. At a Fleet Street photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at eastern London local papers before progressing to major publications. Peers and Legacy Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”. Private World In 2001 Harris made contact through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres. His final project, completed a few weeks before his death, was to transfer his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his preferred historical photos he commented on a youthful Harris drinking large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”. He was wed twice, both marriages concluded with divorce. He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.