Brian Harris Obituary: An Existence Through the Lens
The photographer B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became one of the most respected British photojournalists of his era.
A Global Professional Journey
He travelled the world as a independent or a employee for major British publications, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger 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 several US election campaigns. He also created lyrical landscapes of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.
By his own calculation he shot more than 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He kept sharing archive and recent images each day on social media up to a few weeks before his death, and had been arranging to give a talk on his career and experiences.Memorable Projects
Stories from a rollercoaster career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed 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, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach were published across eight columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced 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 striking him with a folded 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 worked around the world for nearly a decade, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered editing of his strongest images of starvation in Africa.
In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was put together to launch a major newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and broadsheet design, in striking images filling multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe recording the collapse of communism.
He worked as a freelance after being made redundant 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 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.
Background and Start
Harris was born in east 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 relocated eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.
At a central London photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his professional career at eastern London local papers before moving on to major publications.
Colleagues and Legacy
Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the early days, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of junior colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.
Private World
In 2001 Harris made contact through a website with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and quality drinks, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.
His final project, completed a short time before his death, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his preferred historical photos he commented on a youthful Harris consuming large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed 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 second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
