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The photographer B. Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became among the most esteemed British photojournalists of his era.

A Global Career

He travelled across the globe as a freelance or a employee for Fleet Street publications, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home.

According to his estimates he shot more than 2m images, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting archive and new images each day on online platforms until a short time before his passing, and had been arranging to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Memorable Projects

Tales from a rollercoaster career included an costly premium flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from heatstroke and pneumonia and was treated with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

His 1983 images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling into the sea on Brighton beach were published across multiple columns of a leading page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an irritated John Major striking him with a folded briefing paper.

Professional Highlights

He became the Times’ youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked 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 considered editing of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head 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 became known for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among numerous 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 made redundant in 1999, and major projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Background and Beginnings

Harris was born in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son construct a photo lab in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family relocated farther east – and to a better area – to the Rise Park 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 delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at east London local papers before moving on to major publications.

Colleagues and Legacy

Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a superb and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, finished a short time before his death, was to donate his vast archive of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his preferred historical photos he reflected 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 married twice, both marriages concluded with divorce.

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