🔗 Share this article Brian Harris Life Story: A Life Through the Camera The photojournalist B. 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. A Global Career He journeyed across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for major British publications, documenting such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical landscapes of the countryside around his Essex home. According to his estimates he shot over 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He kept sharing archive and new images each day on online platforms up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences. Notable Assignments Stories from a turbulent career included an expenses-shredding business class 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 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 carried across eight columns of a front 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 exasperated John Major hitting him with a folded briefing paper. Professional Highlights He was appointed as the Times’ most youthful staff photographer when he joined the paper 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 later stepped down over what he saw as editing of his strongest images of starvation in Africa. In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was put together to launch a major newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe recording the collapse of communism. He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and major 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 private viewing to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered. Background and Start Harris was raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him build a darkroom in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family moved farther east – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, acquiring practical skills in woodwork and metalwork, before departing at 16. At a Fleet Street agency, he quickly advanced from messenger boy to photographer, and launched his working life at eastern London local papers before moving on to national publications. Peers and Impact Other photographers, often outpaced by him, recalled his work as astonishing. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the initial stages, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an influence 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 website with Nikki, whom he had first met as a toddler in primary school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a driving tour in Europe, posting sunny images of fine dining and quality drinks, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, completed a few weeks before his death, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his favourite historical photos he commented on a youthful Harris drinking large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed life I’ve had – no regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”. He was wed 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.