This video shows the amazing career highlights of a photographer who grew up in a Devon council house but went on to shoot some of the most famous A-list celebrities in the world.
Paul Harris, 69, has hung out with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elon Musk, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Cobain, Hunter S Thompson and Venus and Serena Williams during a glittering career which has spanned more than 50 years.
Paul, originally from Barnstaple, left North Devon for Hollywood in 1977 and has photographed almost everyone of note since landing across the pond.
He has travelled with President Ronald Reagan, photographed Muhammad Ali in his LA home, sold his online photography business to industry giants Getty and was even deported from Rhodesia under the official secrets act.
"Not bad for someone who grew up in a council house in Barnstaple,” jokes Paul Harris, who left Barnstaple Boys Secondary School at 16 and landed a job at Knight Photographers.
Under the guidance of owner Dennis Knight, Paul worked for seven years at the business honing his professional skills.
Paul said: “Dennis not only taught me photography, he taught me how to respect myself and be confident in my own ability.
"He taught me that I was equal to others – it didn’t matter that I came from very humble beginnings on a council estate, that my opinion mattered. He gave me a very different perspective on life.”
After Knight Photographers, Paul went on to work alongside Tony Freeman at Waverly Photographic, but eventually he wanted to spread his wings and at 29 accepted a job as a photographer on the Rhodesia Herald in Africa.
Paul said: “I knew I wanted to get out by 29, I knew I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in Barnstaple.
"But I didn’t leave because I didn’t love the place, I still go back there five times a year to see my mum.
"I love North Devon, I just didn’t want to stay there.”
Paul spent two years in the African country which is now Zimbabwe, before becoming one of only two people to be deported from the troubled state under the Official Secrets Act, after publishing a controversial image of the then Rhodesian prime minister, Ian Smith, pointing a gun.
Just before leaving Rhodesia in early 1977 Paul met English photography legend Terry Fincher, he offered him the chance to go and work in Los Angeles as a photographer for his agency Photographers International.
He said: “I knew this was it. Everything about LA was perfect the light, the weather, it was great.”
Paul then found himself immersed in the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, snapping some of the world’s biggest names and rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.
But despite the high life Paul still felt something, or rather someone was missing, his girlfriend from Barnstaple, Petronela, who he had met when she was hitchhiking to the Marisco nightclub in Woolacombe, in 1970.
He said: “I loved everything about America, accept the Americans. I knew I wouldn’t find anyone like Petronela in America, I knew she was the one, so I had to find a way to convince her to move to America with me.”
Fortunately for Paul, Petronela agreed and moved out to Los Angeles and the couple set up home on Sunset Strip, LA.
A few years later in 1981 the couple found themselves starring in a Jane Fonda pregnancy fitness book, while Petronela was pregnant with the couple’s daughter, Jessica.
Paul said: “She was a member of the Jane Fonda aerobics and fitness club when she became pregnant.
"Jane Fonda asked her and 10 other pregnant mothers if they would be in the book with her and Jane Seymour, who was also pregnant at the time and a member of the club.
“I got roped into it as it was a time when husbands where encouraged to do lamaz or whatever it was called, joint workouts of breathing and stretching, all very odd.
“Pictures in the book show Petronela pregnant, me doing the exercises with her and then a big portrait of all the girls and their babies after all the babies where born.”
Later the couple’s second child Max came along and the family were living the American dream, with Paul photographing just about every famous film and pop star.
“I was at the homes of the celebrities through the front door, photographing these people in their homes. It was wonderful.”
Of all the jobs Paul was involved with, one of the most bizarre Paul recollects was a day he spent hanging out with Muhammad Ali in 1980 at his LA home, ahead of his fight against Larry Holmes in Las Vegas for the world heavyweight title.
Paul said: “I knocked on the door and I could see him through the window on the phone and he kept talking, completely ignoring me on the doorstep.
"After an hour he put the phone down and opened the door and said ‘how long am I giving you?’ and I said an hour, and he said ‘well you’ve had that haven’t you?’ and shut the door.
“He walked away and then came back, popped his head out the door and said ‘just kidding’ and let me in.”
Paul then spent the entire day with Ali at his home, and photographed him with his two-year-old daughter Laila, who later went on to become the female heavyweight champion of the world, who Paul also photographed as an adult, nearly two decades later.
Paul said: “He was the most charismatic man I had ever met, but he was also the most child-like person.
"I stayed with him until about 11pm, watched a film with him, joked with him, I really felt like I was Muhammed Ali’s friend that day.
“Then when I saw him again, I went to catch his eye to say hello, but he just looked straight through me and ignored me.
"I don’t know whether he didn’t remember me or whether it was another one of his jokes. I’ll never quite know whether he did remember me.”
Throughout the 1980s and 90s Paul was shooting with film. He took pictures at the Tech Information Week conferences in the late 80s, early 90s, taking photos of computer giants Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell.
He said: “It’s funny to think now that I was photographing these people who were writing the codes to the future, they would change everything about how my life and the world would pan out, with the internet and the digital revolution.”
Fortunately for Paul, he and his business partner Brad Elterman, were one of the first press agencies to cotton on to the way the internet could enhance their business and launched a successful dot com site, OnlineUSA.
“We were one of the first agencies in the world to have a searchable database of pictures. Getty images bought the company in 1999. If you type in www.OnlineUSA.com now it still directs you straight to Getty Images.”
As part of the deal with Getty Paul had to agree to a non-compete clause which meant he couldn’t start a rival company until 2002, when he started another agency called BWP Media, which in 2004 merged with AC Media.
Then in 2004 he and his two partners launched Pacific Coast News, which was currently one of the "heavyweights" in celebrity pictures worldwide.
North Devon up-to-date
Paul said: “The media has changed, which meant the celebrities changed.
"The British press in particular suddenly became very bitchy, and where the celebrities would once welcome you into their home, they gradually became more closed off, which led to the rise of the paparazzi, suddenly you couldn’t get access.
"I feel very lucky I did.”
Paul continued to take pictures editorially until January 2016 when he retired.
He said: "I now enjoy photographing the countryside and searching through the memories of my old archive which contains thousands of photographs and memories."
For more information visit Paul's website here: www.paulharrisphotojournalist.com
