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The photographer Brian Harris, who has died at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became among the most esteemed British documentary photographers of his era.

A Global Professional Journey

He journeyed across the globe as a independent or a staffer for major British titles, covering 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 war and four US presidential campaigns. He also created lyrical scenic views of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.

According to his estimates he took more than 2m 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 up to a short time before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Notable Assignments

Stories from a rollercoaster career featured an costly business class 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 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 often reprinted as a hideous example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an irritated John Major striking him with a folded briefing paper.

Career Milestones

He was appointed as the a major newspaper’s 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 reporting of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He eventually resigned over what he considered censorship of his strongest images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was assembled to launch a new newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for press images and broadsheet 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 the former Eastern Bloc recording 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 resulted in an exhibition 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 Beginnings

Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him construct a photo lab in the garage. In the mid 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and to a better area – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, learning useful skills in woodwork and metalwork, before departing at 16.

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

Colleagues and Impact

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as astonishing. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a great and fearless photographer”, an influence to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “reimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a website with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in infant school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, posting bright images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, completed a short time before his demise, was to donate his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite archive images 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 regrets and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was married twice, each union concluded with divorce.

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