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The photojournalist B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became one of the most respected UK documentary photographers of his generation.

A Global Professional Journey

He journeyed the world as a freelance or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he shot over two million photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting archive and new images each day on online platforms up to a short time before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his life and work.

Notable Projects

Stories from a turbulent career included an costly premium flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated 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 carried across multiple columns of a front page, and are often reprinted 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 Highlights

He became the Times’ 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 reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to create a new newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among many awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the collapse of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being made redundant in 1999, and significant projects after that 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 private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Early Life and Start

Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him construct a photo lab 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, learning useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before departing at 16.

At a central London agency, he quickly advanced from messenger boy to photographer, and launched his working life at east London local papers before progressing to major publications.

Colleagues and Legacy

Other photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, described him as “a great and fearless photographer”, an influence to a cohort of junior colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, sharing sunny images of fine dining and quality drinks, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a few weeks before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his favourite archive images he reflected on a youthful Harris drinking generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was wed twice, each union ended in divorce.

He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.