Brian Harris obituary

"He travelled the world as a freelance or a staffer for Fleet Street titles including the Times, the Independent (where he was the founding chief photographer), the Sun and the Guardian, covering such events as 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 aftermath of the Falklands war and four US presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton's. He also created lyrical landscapes of the countryside around his Essex home."

"By his own calculation he took more than 2m photographs, averaging 100 a day, but he made that count several years ago. He continued posting archive and new images daily on social media up to a few weeks before his death, and had been planning to give a talk on his life and work at an event organised by the British Press Photographers' Association, of which he was a founder member."

"His 1983 images of the then Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach a stroll taken at Harris's suggestion were carried across eight columns of the Times front page, and are regularly reproduced as a hideous example of photo-opportunity 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, after Harris challen"

Brian Harris left school at 16 to become a messenger boy and later became one of the most respected British photojournalists of his generation. He worked for Fleet Street titles including The Times, The Independent (founding chief photographer), The Sun and The Guardian. He covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, famines in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles, wars in the Balkans and Africa, the Falklands aftermath and several US presidential campaigns. He created lyrical landscapes around his Essex home and by his own calculation took more than two million photographs. He posted images daily until shortly before his death and planned a talk with the British Press Photographers' Association.

Read at www.theguardian.com