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The photojournalist Brian Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era.

An International Career

He journeyed across the globe as a independent or a employee for Fleet Street titles, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical landscapes of the countryside around his Essex home.

According to his estimates he shot more than two million photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He continued posting archive and recent images each day on social media up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Memorable Projects

Stories from a turbulent career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from heatstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body.

His 1983 images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach were published across multiple columns of a leading page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Milestones

He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s most youthful staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for almost ten years, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his most powerful images of famine in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to launch a major newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for press images and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among many awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the collapse of communism.

He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and major projects after that included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which resulted in an display launched in London – where he gave a personal tour to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Background and Beginnings

Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him construct a photo lab in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.

At a Fleet Street photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and began his professional career at eastern London local papers before progressing to major publications.

Colleagues and Impact

Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. A colleague, who worked with him in the initial stages, called him “a great and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of young colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in infant school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, posting sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, completed a short time before his death, was to transfer his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite historical photos he commented on a very young Harris drinking generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married twice, both marriages concluded with divorce.

He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.