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The photojournalist Brian Harris, who has died aged 73 from cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become one of the most respected UK documentary photographers of his generation.

A Global Professional Journey

He journeyed the world as a independent or a staffer for Fleet Street titles, covering major happenings including the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and across Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. He also created lyrical scenic views of the rural areas around his Essex home.

According to his estimates he took over 2m photographs, taking an average of 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He kept sharing historical and recent images each day on online platforms up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work.

Notable Assignments

Tales from a turbulent career featured an costly premium 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 then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling into the tide on Brighton beach were carried across multiple columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a striking example of staged photo hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an exasperated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Professional Highlights

He became 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 nearly a decade, 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 put together to create a new newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic 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 collapse of communism.

He operated independently after being let go in 1999, and major projects after that included a year spent capturing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which resulted in an display launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.

Early Life and Start

Harris was born in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later assisted him construct a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved 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 agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at eastern London local papers before moving on to major publications.

Peers and Impact

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as remarkable. A colleague, who worked with him in the initial stages, described him as “a great and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a cohort of junior 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 Bertroya, whom he had initially encountered as a toddler in primary school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, sharing sunny images of good meals and quality drinks, and returning to important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, completed a few weeks before his demise, was to donate his extensive collection of five decades of work to a permanent home. Among his preferred historical photos he reflected on a youthful Harris drinking large glasses 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.