His Passion Made Photography a Snap

Warren King is a soft-spoken, unassuming man of 62 who would much rather talk about his students than about himself. As he prepares to retire after 36 years of teaching photography, he looks back on a career filled with success stories.

In 1973, he was voted the best teacher in Los Angeles. In 1984, he managed hundreds of photographers from all over the world at the swimming venue of the Olympics. But King’s greatest reward, he says, has been teaching what he loves best. And his passion has not been lost on about 6,000 students who have passed through his classrooms over the years.

“Warren King taught me that loving what you do is more important than how much money you make,” said Jay Silverman, a former student.

‘Mentor and Friend’

A photography major and 1973 Reseda High School graduate, Silverman now heads his own production company. “Multiply anything I say by 10, and you may have an idea of what I think of Warren King,” he said. “He is my mentor and my friend. I can’t imagine Reseda High without him.”

In 1955 there were no photography classes in any Valley high school. Then King came along. He not only created the photography department at Reseda High, his department became the prototype for other schools. Today the school has one of the few photo color labs in the nation.

King is proud of the fact that many of his students have gone on to earn their living in photography.

“Warren has probably trained as many professional photographers as any other single individual,” said Teke Matesky, a fashion photographer whose work has appeared in Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Teke, who is known professionally by her first name, says that her creativity flowered in King’s photography class about 15 years ago, when she enrolled in night school for adults.

“He challenged me . . . and taught me to be a professional,” she said. Teke later studied with Ansel Adams.

For his part, King says he knew after seeing her first assignment that Teke would be a major talent.

Father Taught Printing

King, who lives in Encino with his wife, Dottie, graduated from Fremont High School, where his father taught print shop. “My dad believed that school should prepare the student to earn a living, and that has been my approach to teaching photography,” he said.

Magazine writers who want to take their own photos, dentists who shoot before-and-after pictures of their patients, and senior citizens who just want to record the lives of their grandchildren all vie for a spot in King’s class at Reseda High’s Community Adult School.

“When I first came to Reseda,” said its principal, Carol Ogawa, “I wondered about the long lines I would see forming outside. People of all ages would arrive at 4 or 5 in the afternoon with folding chairs and jugs of coffee.” Eventually, administrators implemented a lottery system to give everyone a fair shot at enrollment in King’s class.

Students in his day and evening classes are now busy preparing for the 31st annual Reseda High and Adult School photography salon next Tuesday and Wednesday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the school’s social hall. Open to the public, the show will be judged by former students who are now professional photographers.

Some of them recall the fun they had traveling to Europe the summer of 1970 in a party of about 100 students led by King and his wife. “We still lead groups, but we have graduated to adults now,” Dottie King said. “They are much easier to keep up with.”

Third Generation

King has passed on his passion: His son, Scott, represents the third generation of Kings to teach in the Los Angeles schools.

Scott said: “Dad encouraged all three of us kids to find our own interests, and then he supported us in that. My brother, Clark, as a young person, always loved anything to do with weather. Today he is a meteorologist. Our sister, Susan, followed in Dad’s footsteps and became a very fine photographer.”

Scott, who says his two loves were athletics and the outdoors, teaches ornamental horticulture and coaches the track team at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley.

“If I can be half as good a teacher as my dad,” he said, “I will be satisfied.”