The photographer B. Harris, who passed away aged 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era.
An International Career
He journeyed the world as a independent or a staffer for major British publications, covering major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic landscapes of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.
By his own calculation he took over two million photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He kept sharing historical and new images daily on online platforms up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his career and experiences.Memorable Projects
Tales from a rollercoaster career included an expenses-shredding business class flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he collapsed from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been employed to cool the body.
His 1983’s images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling into the sea on Brighton beach were carried across multiple columns of a leading page, and are often reprinted as a hideous 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 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 reporting 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 became chief photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for news photography and broadsheet design, in dramatic images filling multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe recording the fall of communism.
He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and significant projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a personal tour to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.
Early Life and Beginnings
Harris was raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later helped his son build a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated eastwards – 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 carpentry and metalwork, before leaving at 16.
At a Fleet Street photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and began his professional career at eastern London local papers before progressing to national publications.
Peers and Impact
Other photographers, often scooped by him, recalled his work as astonishing. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him “a superb and fearless photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of junior colleagues. Another associate, a union representative, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.
Personal Life
In 2001 Harris reconnected through a online service with Nikki, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they went on a road trip in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and good wine, and returning to significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.
His final project, completed a short time before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite historical photos he reflected 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, each union ended in divorce.
He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.
