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The photographer Brian Harris, who has died aged 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became among the most esteemed UK documentary photographers of his era.

An International Career

He journeyed the world as a independent or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, covering such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and four US election campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.

By his own calculation he shot over two million photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He continued posting archive and recent images each day on social media until a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Notable Projects

Tales from a rollercoaster career featured an expenses-shredding business class flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from heatstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body.

His 1983’s 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 leading page, and are often reprinted as a striking example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Professional Highlights

He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s 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 saw as censorship of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was put together to launch a new newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping raise the bar for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images filling 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 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 private viewing 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 build a photo lab in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.

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

Peers and Impact

Other photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as remarkable. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a website with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, posting sunny images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a few weeks before his demise, was to transfer his extensive collection of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite archive images he reflected on a very young Harris drinking 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 wed twice, each union ended in divorce.

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