🔗 Share this article

The photographer B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become among the most esteemed British photojournalists of his era.

An International Career

He journeyed across the globe as a independent or a staffer for major British titles, documenting such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he shot over 2m photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He kept sharing archive and new images daily on social media up to a short time before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work.

Notable Assignments

Stories 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 used to preserve the body.

His 1983 images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach were published 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, took the title from an irritated John Major hitting him with a folded briefing paper.

Professional Milestones

He became the a major newspaper’s youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper 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 eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his strongest images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc documenting the collapse of communism.

He worked as a freelance 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 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.

Background and Start

Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later helped his son construct a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved farther east – and up in the world – 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 leaving at 16.

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

Peers and Legacy

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

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris made contact through a website with Nikki, whom he had first met as a toddler in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, posting bright images of fine dining and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a short time before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his preferred 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 regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married 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.