🔗 Share this article

The photographer B. Harris, who has died at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become one of the most respected British photojournalists of his era.

An International Professional Journey

He travelled the world as a independent or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, documenting major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands conflict and four US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical scenic views of the rural areas around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he took more than two million photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He continued posting archive and new images daily on online platforms until a short time before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Notable Assignments

Tales from a turbulent career included an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body.

His 1983 images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling 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’s 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 was appointed as the a major newspaper’s most youthful staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for nearly a decade, including reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he saw as censorship of his strongest images of famine in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was put together to launch a major newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for news photography and broadsheet design, in striking images covering 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 fall of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being let go 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 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 eastern 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 moved farther east – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning practical skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before departing at 16.

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

Peers and Legacy

Other photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as astonishing. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the early days, described him as “a great and brave photographer”, an influence to a generation of junior 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 website with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a driving tour in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and quality drinks, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, completed a few weeks before his demise, was to donate his vast archive of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite historical photos he reflected on a youthful Harris consuming large glasses 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, 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.