🔗 Share this article Esteemed Photographer Brian Harris Obituary: A Life Through the Camera The photojournalist B. Harris, who has died at the age of 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era. An International Professional Journey He journeyed across the globe as a independent or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, covering major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home. According to his estimates he shot more than 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting archive and new images each day on online platforms until a short time before his death, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences. Memorable Assignments Stories from a turbulent career included an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated with ice that had been employed to cool the body. His 1983 images of the then 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 regularly reproduced as a hideous example of photo-opportunity 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 became 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 coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his strongest images of starvation in Africa. In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for news photography and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling front and back pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as 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 major projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered. Early Life and Beginnings Harris was raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him build a photo lab in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, learning useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16. At a central London photo agency, he quickly advanced from delivery boy to photographer, and began his professional career at eastern London local papers before moving on to major publications. Peers and Legacy Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the early days, described him as “a great and brave photographer”, an influence to a generation of young colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”. Personal Life In 2001 Harris reconnected through a website with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and quality drinks, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, completed a few weeks before his demise, was to donate his vast archive of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite historical photos he reflected on a youthful Harris drinking generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”. He was wed twice, each union ended in divorce. He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.