The photojournalist Brian Harris, who has died at the age of 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become one of the most respected UK documentary photographers of his generation.
He journeyed across the globe as a independent or a employee for major British publications, covering such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and four US presidential campaigns. He also created poetic landscapes of the countryside around his Essex home.
According to his estimates he took over two million photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting historical and recent images daily on social media until a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to give a talk on his life and work.Memorable Assignments
Tales from a turbulent career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to reach 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 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 eight columns of a front 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.
Career Highlights
He became the Times’ youngest ever staff photographer when he started there 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 eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his strongest images of famine in Africa.
In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was put together to create a new newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for press images and newspaper design, in striking images filling multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc documenting the fall of communism.
He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and major projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which resulted in an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.
Early Life and Start
Harris was born in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son build a darkroom in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family moved farther east – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.
At a Fleet Street agency, he quickly advanced from messenger boy to photographer, and began his professional career at eastern London local papers before progressing to national publications.
Peers and Impact
Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. A colleague, who worked with him in the initial stages, described him as “a superb and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.
Private World
In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and returning to important 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 long-term repository. Among his favourite archive images 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 survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
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