🔗 Share this article Brian Harris Obituary: An Existence Behind the Lens The photographer B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became among the most esteemed British documentary photographers of his generation. A Global Career He travelled the world as a freelance or a staffer for major British titles, covering major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical landscapes of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home. According to his estimates he took over 2m photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He continued posting archive and recent images daily on online platforms until a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work. Memorable Projects Tales from a turbulent career included an costly business class 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 employed to cool the body. His 1983’s images of the then 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 often reprinted as a striking example of staged photo hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper. Career Highlights He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s most youthful staff photographer when he joined the paper 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 editing of his strongest images of starvation 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 forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for news photography and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling front and back pages. Among numerous awards, he was honoured as the What the Papers Say 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 photographing 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 raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him construct a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning practical skills in carpentry and metal crafting, before leaving at 16. At a Fleet Street agency, he rose rapidly from messenger boy to photographer, and began his working life at east London local papers before moving on to major publications. Colleagues and Impact Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as astonishing. A colleague, who worked with him in the early days, described him as “a superb and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of junior colleagues. Tim Dawson, a union representative, 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 primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, completed a short time before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite archive images he reflected on a youthful Harris consuming generous servings 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, each union ended in divorce. He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.