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The photojournalist Brian Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become one of the most respected UK documentary photographers of his era.

An International Professional Journey

He travelled the world as a freelance or a staffer for major British publications, documenting such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he took over 2m photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing historical and recent images daily on social media until a short time before his death, and had been planning to give a talk on his life and work.

Notable Projects

Tales from a turbulent career featured an costly premium flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

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

Professional Highlights

He became the Times’ youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked around the world for almost ten years, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he considered editing of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to launch a new newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for news photography and newspaper design, in striking images filling front and back 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 fall of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being made redundant in 1999, and significant projects thereafter included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an display launched in London – where he gave a personal tour to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.

Early Life and Beginnings

Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son construct a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in carpentry and metalwork, before departing at 16.

At a Fleet Street photo agency, he quickly advanced from messenger boy to photographer, and launched his working life at eastern London local papers before moving on to major publications.

Peers and Legacy

Other photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the initial stages, called him “a great and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of junior colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris made contact through a website with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and quality drinks, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, finished a short time before his demise, was to transfer his vast archive of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his preferred historical photos he commented on a very young Harris consuming generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married twice, both marriages ended in divorce.

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