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The photojournalist B. Harris, who has died aged 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became one of the most respected UK documentary photographers of his era.

An International Professional Journey

He journeyed across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for Fleet Street publications, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and across Africa, the consequences of the Falklands conflict and several US presidential campaigns. Additionally, he produced lyrical scenic views of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.

According to his estimates he shot more than 2m photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure some years back. He continued posting historical and new images daily on online platforms up to a short time before his passing, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Memorable Assignments

Tales from a rollercoaster career featured an expenses-shredding business class flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from heatstroke and pneumonia and was treated 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 sea on Brighton beach were carried across multiple 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 exasperated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Milestones

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 nearly a decade, including reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he considered editing of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was put together to create a major newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for news photography and newspaper design, in striking images filling front and back pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the fall of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being made redundant in 1999, and significant projects thereafter included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 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 technician who later assisted him build a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to a local secondary modern school, acquiring practical skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.

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

Colleagues and Impact

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as astonishing. Nick Turpin, who collaborated with him in the initial stages, described him as “a great 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’ last golden age”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, posting sunny images of fine dining and quality drinks, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a short time before his death, was to transfer his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his favourite historical photos he commented on a very young Harris consuming large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was wed twice, both marriages ended in divorce.

He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his later union, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.