The photojournalist Brian 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 Professional Journey
He travelled across the globe as a independent or a employee for Fleet Street publications, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and across Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and four US election campaigns. He also created lyrical scenic views of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home.
According to his estimates he shot over 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He continued posting archive and recent images daily on online platforms until a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.Memorable Assignments
Tales from a rollercoaster career included an expenses-shredding 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 images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the sea on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a striking example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an exasperated John Major striking him with a folded briefing paper.
Career Milestones
He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s most youthful staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked around the world for nearly a decade, including coverage of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as censorship of his most powerful images of famine in Africa.
In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to launch a new newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering 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 major projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a personal tour to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.
Early Life and Beginnings
Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him build a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in carpentry and metal crafting, before departing at 16.
At a central London agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at east London local papers before progressing to major publications.
Colleagues and Impact
Other photographers, often outpaced by him, recalled his work as astonishing. A colleague, who worked with him in the early days, described him as “a superb and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of junior colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.
Personal Life
In 2001 Harris made contact 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 receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a driving tour in Europe, posting bright images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.
His final project, finished a short time before his death, was to transfer his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his preferred archive images he commented on a youthful Harris drinking 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, both marriages concluded with divorce.
He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
