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The photographer B. Harris, who has died at the age of 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era.

An International Career

He journeyed across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for major British titles, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home.

By his own calculation he shot more than two million photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He continued posting archive and new images daily on social media up to a few weeks before his death, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Memorable Assignments

Stories from a turbulent career featured an costly premium flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from heatstroke 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 published across multiple columns of a front 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 exasperated John Major hitting him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Career Highlights

He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked around the world for almost ten years, including reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as censorship of his most powerful images of famine in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for news photography and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling multiple 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 collapse of communism.

He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and significant projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to Queen Elizabeth II 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 assisted him construct a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, learning useful skills in carpentry and metalwork, before leaving at 16.

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

Peers and Legacy

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the early days, called him “a great and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of young colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ last golden age”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of fine dining and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, completed a few weeks before his death, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his preferred archive images he reflected on a youthful Harris consuming generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married twice, each union concluded with divorce.

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