đ Share this article Brian Harris Obituary: An Existence Through the Camera The photographer B. Harris, who has died aged 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became one of the most respected British photojournalists of his generation. An International Career He travelled the world as a freelance or a staffer for major British publications, covering major happenings including the collapse of the Berlin Wall, drought and hunger in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkans and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and several US election campaigns. Additionally, he produced poetic scenic views of the countryside around his Essex home. According to his estimates he shot over two million images, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He continued posting historical and recent images each day on social media up to a few weeks before his passing, and had been planning to deliver a lecture on his life and work. Memorable Assignments Tales from a turbulent career featured an costly business class flight in 1991 to attend the funeral in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was treated with ice that had been employed to cool the body. His 1983âs images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the sea on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a front page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016âs memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an irritated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper. Career Highlights He became the Timesâ 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 coverage of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he considered editing of his strongest images of starvation in Africa. In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to launch a new newspaper. He played a key role in shaping the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for news photography and broadsheet design, in striking images covering multiple pages. Among many awards, he was honoured as the What the Papers Say photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc documenting the collapse of communism. He worked as a freelance after being let go in 1999, and major 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 â where he gave a personal tour to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh â and a emotional book, Remembered. Background and Beginnings Harris was raised in eastern London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later assisted him build a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated farther east â and to a better area â to the Rise Park estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in carpentry and metal crafting, before leaving at 16. At a Fleet Street agency, he quickly advanced from delivery boy to photographer, and began his working life at eastern London local papers before progressing to major publications. Colleagues and Legacy Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, remembered his work as astonishing. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the initial stages, described him as âa great and brave photographerâ, an influence to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he âreimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapersâ peak eraâ. Personal Life In 2001 Harris made contact through a online service with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After learning of his illness, they went on a driving tour in Europe, sharing bright images of good meals and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, finished 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 very young Harris drinking generous servings of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: âWhat a blessed life Iâve had â no remorse and no âMust Doâsââ. He was married twice, each union ended in divorce. He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikkiâs daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.