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The photojournalist B. Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become among the most esteemed UK documentary photographers of his generation.

A Global Career

He travelled across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for major British publications, documenting major happenings including 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 aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US presidential campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

According to his estimates he took more than two million images, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He kept sharing historical and new images daily on online platforms until a short time before his death, and had been arranging to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Memorable Assignments

Stories 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 collapsed from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

His 1983 images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a front page, and are often reprinted as a striking example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an irritated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Highlights

He became 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 almost ten years, 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 was made head photographer as the team was assembled to launch a major newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among many awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the fall of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being let go in 1999, and significant projects after that 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 personal tour to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Background and Beginnings

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 mid 1950s, the family moved farther east – and to a better area – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to a local secondary modern school, learning practical 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 east London local papers before progressing to national publications.

Peers and Impact

Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, described him as “a superb and fearless photographer”, an influence to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and quality drinks, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, completed a short time before his demise, was to transfer his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his preferred 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 remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married twice, both marriages ended in divorce.

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