Brian Harris Obituary: An Existence Behind the Camera

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 one of the most respected British photojournalists of his generation.

An International Professional Journey

He travelled across the globe as a independent or a employee for major British titles, documenting such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US presidential campaigns. He also created lyrical landscapes of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home.

According to his estimates he took more than two million images, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He continued posting archive and recent images daily on social media up to a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Notable Assignments

Stories from a turbulent career featured an costly business class flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from heatstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down 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, falling into the sea on Brighton beach were published across multiple columns of a leading page, and are often reprinted as a hideous example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major hitting him with a folded briefing paper.

Professional Highlights

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 reporting of the end of the internal conflict 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 major newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for news photography and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling front and back pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc documenting the fall of communism.

He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and major projects thereafter included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which led to an display 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 raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son build a darkroom in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and up in the world – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring practical skills in carpentry and metalwork, before departing at 16.

At a Fleet Street photo agency, he quickly advanced from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at east London local papers before moving on to national publications.

Peers and Legacy

Other photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as astonishing. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the initial stages, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of junior colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris made contact through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a driving tour in Europe, posting bright images of good meals and quality drinks, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, finished a short time before his demise, was to transfer his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his preferred archive images he reflected on a very young Harris drinking generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a fortunate life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was wed twice, each union ended in divorce.

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