Photo Pioneer Reams Dies

SANTA ANA â€”  Maxine Reams, the first female staff photographer hired for the Los Angeles Times who later went on to become chief photographer for The Times Orange County Edition, died Tuesday. She was 79.

Reams, a Tustin resident, died at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana following a stroke, family members said.

“She was a bold pioneer for the many women photographers who have followed in her footsteps here at The Times. She holds a special place in L.A. Times history,� said Laura Morgan, director of communications for The Times.

Reams worked for The Times for nearly 30 years. She was hired as the newspaper’s first female photographer in January 1943 and was named chief photographer for the Orange County Edition in the 1970s.

In an autobiographical sketch provided by her family, Reams recalled working for Southern California Gas. Co for three years while trying to get a job at a newspaper. She finally landed a post as a clerk in The Times’ library. She said she had to convince a manager “that I wasn’t the least bit afraid of ‘those [darkroom] chemicals’ � before being hired as a “photog.�

She went on to become the first female member of the Los Angeles Press Photographers’ Assn., according to a 1963 magazine article.

Reams taught photojournalism in the early 1960s at what was then California State College, Fullerton, and won several journalism awards, including three first-place awards in the 1967 Orange County Press Club’s annual photo competition, according to her biography.

Reams was fascinated by other fields as well, including cutting gemstones and making jewelry, communicating by ham radio, and even exploring computers in her final years, said Norma Lou Wilcox of Redmond, Wash., a family friend.

Although sometimes shy, Reams had a strong personality, and “certainly was not afraid to voice her opinions,� Wilcox said.

Reams was born Sept. 8, 1918, in South Dakota and was adopted when she was 3 months old. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1939 from the University of Iowa and studied at the Chouinard Art Institute and UCLA.

She spent most of her career at The Times, but also worked at the Rothschild photography studio from 1945 to 1952.

Her first camera was an Eastman Kodak Brownie that she described getting free at age 10 during a company promotion. She was constantly taking photographs as a girl, said her sister, Geraldine Swanson of Bullhead City, Ariz.

“She just loved it from the time she was a kid,� said Swanson, who recalled that Reams took her cameras with her everywhere she went. “Every time she got in the car, there were all these cameras.�

Her colleagues describe her as a talented, determined woman.

“She was an excellent photographer, a very creative thinker, very accomplished,� said Deris Jeannette of San Diego, a former photographer for The Times. “She was a perfectionist. She paid very close attention to detail. She was very good at getting people at ease in front of the camera.�

Clifford Otto of Sun City, who spent 30 years as a photographer for The Times, worked with Reams in Orange County, where “she had a way of dealing with most types of situations. She covered everything,� he said.

“She worked very hard at what she did and was absolutely brilliant, creative,� said Vi Smith, a retired staff writer for The Times who remembers always being pleased to hear she would be working with Reams on a story.

“She was an exceptional woman.�

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Steve Carney.