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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 UK documentary photographers of his era.

A Global Career

He travelled the world as a independent or a staffer for major British publications, documenting such events as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands conflict and several US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the rural areas around his Essex home.

According to his estimates he shot more than two million images, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He continued posting archive and recent images daily on social media until a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.

Notable Projects

Stories from a turbulent career featured an expenses-shredding premium flight in 1991 to reach 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’s images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling into the tide on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a striking example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 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 most youthful staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked around the world for almost ten years, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as censorship of his strongest images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris became chief photographer as the team was put together to create a new newspaper. He was instrumental in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was honoured as the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc 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 war memorial organisation, which resulted in 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.

Early Life and Beginnings

Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him build a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved farther east – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, learning practical skills in carpentry and metalwork, before departing at 16.

At a Fleet Street agency, he rose rapidly from messenger boy to photographer, and launched his professional career at eastern London local papers before moving on to major publications.

Colleagues and Legacy

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as remarkable. Nick Turpin, who worked with him in the early days, called him “a superb and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of junior colleagues. Tim Dawson, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Personal Life

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a toddler in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, posting bright images of fine dining and good wine, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a few weeks before his demise, was to donate his vast archive of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his favourite historical photos he commented on a very young 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 wed twice, both marriages concluded with divorce.

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