The photographer Brian Harris, who passed away aged 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become among the most esteemed UK photojournalists of his generation.
A Global Career
He journeyed the world as a freelance or a employee for Fleet Street publications, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical landscapes of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home.
By his own calculation he shot more than two million images, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing historical and recent images each day on social media until a short time before his death, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.Memorable Assignments
Stories from a turbulent career featured an costly premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been employed to cool the body.
His 1983’s 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 leading page, and are often reprinted as a hideous example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an exasperated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.
Professional Highlights
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 nearly a decade, including coverage of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his most powerful images of famine in Africa.
In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to create a new newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling front and back pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the industry-recognised 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 significant projects thereafter included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, 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.
Early Life and Beginnings
Harris was born in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son construct 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 went to a local secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before departing at 16.
At a Fleet Street photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and began his working life at east London local papers before progressing to major publications.
Peers and Legacy
Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the initial stages, described him as “a great and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of junior colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.
Private World
In 2001 Harris made contact through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and good wine, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.
His final project, completed a short time before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his preferred historical photos he commented on a very young Harris drinking large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”.
He was wed twice, each union concluded with divorce.
He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
