🔗 Share this article

The photojournalist Brian Harris, who passed away aged 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become among the most esteemed UK photojournalists of his generation.

A Global Professional Journey

He travelled across the globe as a independent or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, documenting 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 consequences of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.

By his own calculation he shot more than 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing archive and new images daily on social media until a few weeks before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Memorable Assignments

Tales from a rollercoaster career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the assassinated leader 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 sea on Brighton beach were carried across multiple columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a striking example of staged photo hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an irritated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Milestones

He became the Times’ most youthful staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for almost ten years, including coverage of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered editing of his strongest 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 shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for news photography and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named 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 made redundant in 1999, and significant projects after that included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which resulted in an exhibition 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 raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him 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 metalwork, before leaving at 16.

At a central London photo agency, he quickly advanced from messenger boy to photographer, and launched his professional career at eastern London local papers before moving on to national publications.

Colleagues and Impact

Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the initial stages, called him “a great and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of young colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and good wine, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a few weeks before his demise, was to transfer his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite historical photos he reflected on a youthful Harris consuming generous servings 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 ended in divorce.

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