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

A Global Career

He journeyed the world as a independent or a employee for major British titles, documenting such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical landscapes of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he took over two million photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting historical and recent images daily on social media until a short time before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Memorable Projects

Tales from a rollercoaster career featured an costly business class flight in 1991 to reach the funeral in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated 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 sea on Brighton beach were published across eight columns of a leading page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Highlights

He was appointed as 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 coverage of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down 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 new newspaper. He played a key role 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 filling multiple 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 collapse of communism.

He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and major projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an display launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Background and Start

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 a local secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in carpentry 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 eastern London local papers before moving on to national publications.

Colleagues and Impact

Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as astonishing. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a great and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of young colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.

Personal Life

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

His last task, completed a short time before his death, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. 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 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.