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The photographer Brian Harris, who has died at the age of 73 of cancer, left school at 16 to become a messenger boy, and eventually became among the most esteemed British documentary photographers of his generation.

An International Career

He journeyed across the globe as a freelance or a staffer for Fleet Street titles, documenting such events as the fall 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 consequences of the Falklands conflict and several US election campaigns. He also created poetic landscapes of the rural areas 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 made that count several years ago. He kept sharing archive and new images each day on social media up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work.

Notable Projects

Stories 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 collapsed from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

His 1983’s images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the sea on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a leading page, and are regularly reproduced 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 striking him with a folded briefing paper.

Career Milestones

He became the Times’ most youthful staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked 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 saw as editing of his strongest images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to launch a major newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of editorial 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 named the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe recording the fall of communism.

He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and major projects thereafter 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 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a emotional book, Remembered.

Background and Beginnings

Harris was raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son build 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 woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16.

At a Fleet Street photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and began his working life at eastern London local papers before progressing to major publications.

Peers and Impact

Other photographers, often outpaced by him, recalled his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the early days, described him as “a great and brave photographer”, an influence to a cohort of young colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “reimagined 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 infant school, and they became close companions through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, posting bright images of fine dining and quality drinks, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, completed a few weeks before his demise, was to transfer his vast archive of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his preferred archive images he commented on a very young Harris consuming generous servings 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, both marriages ended in divorce.

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