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The photographer B. Harris, who has died aged 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to become a messenger boy, and went on to become one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era.

An International Career

He travelled the world as a freelance 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 throughout Africa, the consequences of the Falklands war and several US election campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the rural areas around his home county of Essex home.

According to his estimates he shot more than 2m photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing archive and recent images each day on online platforms up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been planning to give a talk on his career and experiences.

Notable Assignments

Stories from a turbulent career included an costly business class flight in 1991 to reach the burial in India of the slain politician Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been employed to cool the body.

His 1983 images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, falling 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’s memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, was named after an exasperated John Major hitting him with a folded briefing paper.

Career Highlights

He was appointed as the Times’ youngest ever 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 internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as editing of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to create a major newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of journalistic photography that the paper became known for, helping set new standards for press images and broadsheet design, in striking images covering front and back pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as 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 thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, 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 emotional book, Remembered.

Early Life and Beginnings

Harris was born in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an electrician who later helped his son construct a photo lab in the garage. In the 1950s, the family moved eastwards – and up in the world – to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in carpentry and metal crafting, before departing at 16.

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

Peers and Legacy

Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, recalled 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. Tim Dawson, 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 remaining years. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they went on a road trip in Europe, posting bright images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His last task, finished a short time 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 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 wed twice, each union concluded with divorce.

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