Brian Harris Obituary: A Life Behind the Camera

The photojournalist Brian Harris, who has died at the age of 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his generation.

An International Professional Journey

He travelled across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, documenting such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and several US presidential campaigns. He also created lyrical scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he took over two million photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting archive and recent images each day on online platforms up to a short time before his death, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Notable Assignments

Tales from a rollercoaster career included an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to reach the funeral in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

His 1983 images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the sea 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 exasperated John Major hitting him with a folded briefing paper.

Career Highlights

He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for almost ten years, including reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as censorship of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to launch a major newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in striking images filling front and back pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc recording the collapse 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 Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 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.

Background and Start

Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later helped his son build 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 attended a local secondary modern school, learning practical skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before departing at 16.

At a central London agency, he rose rapidly from messenger boy to photographer, and began his working life at east London local papers before moving on to national publications.

Colleagues and Legacy

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, recalled 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 junior colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a website with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, completed a short time before his death, was to donate his extensive collection of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his preferred historical photos he commented on a youthful Harris drinking 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, both marriages ended in divorce.

He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.