đ Share this article Brian Harris Obituary: A Life Through the Lens The photojournalist B. Harris, who has died at the age of 73 from cancer, left school at 16 to work as a courier, and went on to become one of the most respected UK photojournalists of his era. An International Career He journeyed across the globe as a freelance or a employee for Fleet Street publications, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the conflict in Northern Ireland, war zones in the Balkan region and across Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands conflict and four US election campaigns. He also created lyrical landscapes of the rural areas around his Essex home. By his own calculation he shot more than 2m images, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count some years back. He continued posting historical and recent images each day on online platforms until a few weeks before his passing, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work. Notable Assignments Stories from a rollercoaster 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 cooled down 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, falling into the sea on Brighton beach were carried across multiple columns of a front page, and are often reprinted as a hideous example of photo-opportunity hubris. His 2016 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 Milestones He became the a major newspaperâs youngest ever staff photographer when he joined the paper in 1976, at the age of 26, and was based around the world for nearly a decade, including reporting of the end of the civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he considered editing of his most powerful images of starvation in Africa. In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was put together to create a major newspaper. He played a key role in forming the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping raise the bar for press images and broadsheet design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among many awards, he was named the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in the former Eastern Bloc recording the fall of communism. He operated independently after being made redundant in 1999, and major projects after that included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the war memorial organisation, which led to an display launched in London â where he gave a personal tour to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh â and a moving book, Remembered. Background and Beginnings Harris was born in east 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 up in the world â to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian attended a local secondary modern school, acquiring useful skills in woodwork and metal crafting, before leaving at 16. At a central London photo agency, he quickly advanced from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his professional career at eastern London local papers before progressing to major publications. Peers and Legacy Fellow photographers, often scooped by him, remembered his work as astonishing. A colleague, who collaborated with him in the early days, called him âa great and brave photographerâ, an influence to a cohort of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he âreimagined the possibilities of news photography during newspapersâ last golden ageâ. Private World In 2001 Harris made contact through a online service with Nikki, whom he had initially encountered as a three-year-old in infant school, and they became inseparable partners through his remaining years. After learning of his illness, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, posting sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and revisiting important sites including Dresden and Ypres. His last task, completed a few weeks before his death, was to transfer his vast archive of five decades of work to a long-term repository. Among his favourite archive images he reflected on a youthful Harris drinking large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: âWhat a blessed life Iâve had â no regrets and no âMust Doâsââ. He was married twice, both marriages ended in divorce. He is remembered by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikkiâs daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.