🔗 Share this article Esteemed Photographer Brian Harris Life Story: A Life Behind the Camera The photojournalist B. Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became among the most esteemed UK documentary photographers of his era. An International Professional Journey He travelled the world as a freelance or a staffer for major British publications, covering major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and throughout Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. He also created poetic landscapes of the rural areas around his Essex home. By his own calculation he took over 2m photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting historical and new images daily on online platforms up to a short time before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences. Memorable Projects Stories from a rollercoaster career featured an costly premium flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from heatstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body. His 1983’s images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling into the tide on Brighton beach were published across multiple columns of a leading page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major striking him with a folded briefing paper. Professional Milestones He was appointed as 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 editing of his most powerful images of famine in Africa. In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was put together to create a major newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in dramatic 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 recording the fall of communism. He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and significant projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 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 moving book, Remembered. Early Life and Start Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him construct a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring practical skills in woodwork and metalwork, before departing at 16. At a central London photo agency, he quickly advanced from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his professional career at east London local papers before progressing to major publications. Peers and Legacy Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as astonishing. A colleague, who worked with him in the early days, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an influence to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”. Private World In 2001 Harris made contact through a website with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they embarked on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of fine dining and quality drinks, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, completed a few weeks before his demise, was to transfer his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his favourite historical photos he commented on a youthful Harris consuming large glasses 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 concluded with divorce. He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.