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About the Author, Warren Paul Harris

What a long, strange trip it's been...

At the age of 14, Mr. Harris was taught the fundamentals of film processing by his father, who learned the discipline while serving in the U.S. Navy during WW II.

Processing his own film enabled Warren to explore photography with fewer financial limitations and utilize more creative printing techniques. While living in the Los Angeles area he enrolled in a photography correspondence course in 1970, picking up some valuable film processing and printing techniques as well as learning composition and exposure through his assignments. He bought his first 35mm SLR camera, a Praktica IV-F, in 1970, graduating to Nikkormat cameras and Nikkor lenses in 1973. After the 1971 earthquake that brought Southern California to a standstill, the widespread loss of power (and insomnia brought about by abundant aftershocks), encouraged Mr. Harris to explore time-exposure photography for the first time.

Working as a Studio Engineer for Motown Records and having friends throughout the entertainment industry opened the doors to live performance photography, which proved to be a natural fit along with his exposure at an early age to the psychedelic music scene in San Francisco during the mid—to-late 1960s. This, combined with Warren's background as a guitarist and roadie with The Grateful Dead in 1968, (hence the quote at the beginning of this bio) proved to be a perfect training ground for Rock 'n Roll photography. He has photographed Sly Stone, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Drowning Pool, Ted Nugent, Randy Travis and 3 Doors Down, to name a just a few.

While working for Motown Records, he met Sly Stone, who offered him a job in Northern California. Moving his family back to Marin County in 1975, Mr. Harris began his career as a Recording Engineer, working with numerous local and international artists, photographing their performances and promo materials, while honing his photographic skills.

In 1981, with increased fiscal responsibilities, Mr. Harris, as he puts it “hung up his cameras” to pursue a more lucrative career in the technical field, opening AudioCraft Engineering, and operating it for 6 years. Needing a change of environment, he joined Symantec Corporation as a Technical Marketing Specialist, for three years before opening his own computer consulting firm in 1994, which he relocated to Plano, Texas in 1999.

Mr. Harris credits an art class taken in 1992 with vastly improving his appreciation of art and his compositional skills, while confirming his long-held belief in an inability to draw anything recognizable.

An epiphany in 2006 caused him to re-embrace his first love of photography, acquire new digital equipment, and attack the art form with a vengeance, determined to make up for what he feels is “lost time”. Never without a camera, Warren captures new images for his collection on a regular basis and has embraced digital manipulation to create his frequently dark and other-worldly images. Despite being advised by a multitude of friends and relatives that “There is nothing to see in Texas.”, Warren pursues the obscure and fascinating beauty he finds throughout the vast expanse of the Lone Star State. Content to ride his Harley for hours at a time down endless 2-lane highways, exploring the myriad small towns that pepper the Texas countryside, he finds gems of Texas history everywhere he trains his lens.

A love of cemeteries causes him to explore any necropolis he stumbles upon in his travels. Warren has been making a concerted effort to explore, photograph and document obscure and historic graveyards that dot the Texas landscape as well as any he happens upon in his world travels. necropoliscreep.com is the website featuring these collections

In 2010, Mr. Harris sold his computer consulting firm to dedicate more time to photography. This allowed him to relocate his studio closer to home in Frisco, Texas, which he uses for commercial assignments, fashion and glamour photography and a creative outlet for his own projects. He is putting his newfound free time to very good use traveling with his wife, while collecting new images for varying themes. In development are several other coffee table books, some nearing completion.

He has freelanced for local newspapers and magazines as well as international publications over the years. Warren shoots freelance projects for local businesses and government offices, participates in art shows and has found a new love of High School sports through his coverage of these games for several newspapers. His work is on permanent display in City buildings, Frisco Square, Ebby Halliday offices and in the homes of local collectors across the Metroplex.

Referred to as a “Renaissance Man” on more than a few occasions, Mr. Harris loves cabinet making, welding, playing guitar, creating various projects (he built his wife a custom, lighted shoe closet in their Frisco home) and is as comfortable with electricity and electronics as he is with woodworking, plumbing, construction and plastic fabrication. As early as his twenties, Warren was an accomplished calligrapher, a skill taught to him by a close friend in 1969. He has done some acting for commercials, local productions and a Korean Mini-Series, and enjoyed a minor career in the Voiceover field.

A vegetarian since 1969, Warren is an avid target shooter (but clearly not a hunter), a Licensed Texas Investigator, specializing in data recovery, computer forensic analysis and cybersecurity. He possesses a wide-ranging creative style as diverse as his background and interests..

In 2014 the Harrises relocated to North Dallas to be closer to the rapidly expanding Arts scene. They love living in Dallas and spend a great deal of time in Deep Ellum, the Arts District and Design District. Karen Harris is an accomplished abstract artist as well, and in 2021 they relocated their art/photography studio from Richardson to Addison, which gave them the space to open a full-time art gallery under the HarrisArt Dallas brand.