Assignments LIVE: An evening with Photographer Brian Harris

The British Press Photographers’ Association are delighted to announce the next instalment in their photography talks series ‘Assignments LIVE’.

Following the success of our previous events we are excited to reveal our evening talk with renowned press photographer and founder member of The BPPA Brian Harris. As some of you may know Brian is facing end of life medical care and we are delighted that he has chosen to share the highlights of his career at The Bridewell Theatre on Wednesday 8th October 2025.

Brian Harris has been an editorial, news and current affairs photographer for more than 55 years. Fascinated early on by the alchemy of the darkroom, by his teens in the 1960s he was combining school work with photographing weddings and football matches in his native Essex. A job as a runner at the Fox Photos agency at the age of sixteen set Brian on the path that would shape his life.

In the 1970s Brian worked in the heart of Fleet Street, freelancing for The Sun, The Times, News of the World, the BBC and United Press International, covering everything from IRA bombings to celebrity news, until joining The Times as its youngest ever staff photographer aged twenty-four. When The Independent launched in 1986, Brian became its first staff photographer, playing a key role in forming the renowned Indy style of intelligent editorial photography. In his fifteen years at The Independent Brian travelled the world to cover the stories that defined the era.

Since going freelance in 1999 Brian has lectured on his photography in Sweden and Spain, exhibited his work at the Photofusion Photography Centre, and has contributed to exhibitions organised by the British Press Photographers’ Association. He collaborated with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Remembered, a major book and series of international touring exhibitions chronicling the CWGC’s work caring for the graves of over 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead.

The BBC has made three short documentaries about his working methods and he has debated live on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze: ‘An experience more terrifying than walking through a minefield on the Falkland Islands.’

Brian has a son, Jacob, and lives near Cambridge with his partner Nikki. When not on assignment, he still makes photographs every day which he places with stock photo agencies.

Brian has now deposited his entire photographic archive with TopFoto based in the Weald of Kent for future generations to use for historic research and editorial use.

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