The photographer Brian Harris, who has died at the age of 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become one of the most respected British documentary photographers of his generation.
A Global Career
He travelled the world as a independent or a employee for major British titles, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic scenic views of the rural areas around his Essex home.
By his own calculation he shot more than 2m photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He continued posting historical and recent images each day on social media until a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to give a talk on his career and experiences.Memorable Assignments
Tales from a rollercoaster career included an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from heatstroke 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 carried across multiple columns of a front page, and are often reprinted as a striking example of staged photo hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.
Professional Milestones
He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s youngest ever staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for nearly a decade, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as editing of his strongest images of famine in Africa.
In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was put together to launch a new newspaper. He played a key role 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 covering multiple pages. Among many awards, he was named the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the collapse of communism.
He worked as a freelance after being let go in 1999, and significant projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which resulted in an display launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.
Background and Beginnings
Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him build a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated farther east – and up in the world – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning useful skills in carpentry and metal crafting, before departing at 16.
At a Fleet Street agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at eastern London local papers before moving on to national publications.
Peers and Impact
Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the early days, described him as “a great and fearless photographer”, an influence to a cohort of junior colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.
Personal Life
In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and good wine, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.
His final project, completed a short time before his demise, was to donate his vast archive of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his favourite 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 remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.
He was married twice, each union concluded with divorce.
He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
