‘Old negatives everywhere.’ Photographer has trove of historic photos of this KY town

History peers out from hundreds of old photos in David Rogers’ studio.

A crowded political rally at the courthouse in downtown Somerset more than a century ago. Ferry crews on the Cumberland River decades before it was dammed to form Lake Cumberland. A group of serious-looking young men headed off to World War II. Workers repairing locomotives at a railroad shop that was a major employer before closing in the 1950s.

Rogers, 75, is a photographer who has been chronicling life around Somerset and Pulaski County for more than 50 years, but the old photos date from long before his time.

Jim Slaughter, another photographer in town, saved negatives spanning decades as he operated his own studio, and also kept shots from other photographers.

Rogers worked for Slaughter in the late 1960s and received the trove of shots when he bought Slaughter’s studio in 1981.

“I’ve got old negatives everywhere,” Rogers said.

Rogers printed hundreds of photos that captured scenes around the city and county and digitized them. If there is a photo of a historic scene hanging in a business or home in the county, chances are it’s from his collection.

B.J. Brown, who owns Gatormade Trailers and other businesses in the county, has bought several photos from Rogers to hang.

Brown owns the former bus depot in downtown Somerset, and acquired photos of the depot from decades ago to hang in the renovated building, which is rented to an insurance agency.

Rogers has done more to preserve local history through photos than anyone he knows, Brown said.

“It’s valuable to me,” Brown said. “It’s just a chance to reminisce a bit. This is the way it was.”

Some of the photos have dates or a short caption. Many don’t, but clues such as the style of cars or the presence of a building gone for decades help fix them in time and place.

Over the years, Rogers said people have told him the history depicted in many of the photos.

“I learn a lot from people,” he said.

Kirby Stephens, who owns KSD Kinetic | Strategic | Design, a design and marketing firm in Somerset, said he used photos from Rogers’ collection as part of a project in 1992 for the state’s bicentennial to create a guidebook for a walking tour of historic sites in Somerset.

“It was a valuable resource,” Stephens said. “He’s got a lot of good old stuff.”

Rogers said he started shooting basketball games for the Commonwealth-Journal, the newspaper in Somerset, in the 1960s.

It was before the county consolidated high schools. He would sometimes travel to three rural schools in a night to take pictures in the matchbox gyms.

He went to work for Slaughter in 1967. The studio shot portraits but also took photos for the newspaper and the coroner’s office.

“The first day on the job I went to a drowning” at Lake Cumberland, Rogers said.

Rogers opened his own studio in the early 1970s.

He gave a key to the business to reporters from the newspaper so they could use the darkroom to develop photos. The reporters put their names on the photos but also the name of the studio, which helped with recognition.

When he shot photos of Somerset High School football on Friday nights, he would print them up and stick copies in the window of the studio so students could see and buy them, Rogers said.

“I got my following,” Rogers said.

Rogers didn’t attend Somerset High School, but was named to the school’s Hall of Fame in 2016 for his photography work.

Rogers said Slaughter took a conventional approach to shooting portraits in the studio, but he had the idea to begin shooting portraits outside.

Slaughter fussed at him about it.

“He said ‘You’ve got them wanting everything in the world,’“ Rogers said with a laugh.

Gib Gosser, who was a reporter at the Commonwealth-Journal from 1973 to 1976 before going into radio news, recalled working with Rogers to shoot photos of damage from a super outbreak of tornadoes in April 1974, when a total of 148 tornadoes raked Kentucky and a dozen other states, killing more than 300 people.

The Commonwealth-Journal reported eight people died as a result of tornadoes that hit Pulaski County.

Gosser said he and Rogers met a pilot at the local airport who was going to take them up to get aerial photos of the destruction.

Rogers was worried Gosser would get airsick, so had him sit in the back seat of the plane and load film into cameras to pass up to Rogers, so Gosser wouldn’t have to watch the ground coming up at them.

But as the pilot turned the plane on its side and dove so Rogers could get shots of damage, it wasn’t Gosser who got sick.

“Worse than a carnival ride,” Rogers said of the flight.

Rogers displays his collection of historic photos on several large boards, but the walls of the studio are covered with his photos as well.

There is one of comedian Bob Hope he took at a University of Kentucky football game, and one of legendary UK basketball announcer Cawood Ledford taken when Ledford came to Somerset for a radio broadcast.

There are also several photos of bank robbers. Rogers once had the job of developing film from bank surveillance cameras that agents brought in after a robbery.

It wasn’t a quick process in the days before digital photography. An agent would have to wait on him to develop the film “while the robbers were getting away,” Rogers joked.

Rogers started shooting photos in the day when a boxy camera that used a 4-inch by 5-inch sheet of film and a large flash bulb was popular. It could take two photos on each piece of film.

These days he still shoots portraits, reunions and some sports photos, but his business has evolved to include a good bit of framing and copying photos, and restoring old photos.

Vernon Petrey, who has worked with Rogers since 1983, handles the restoration work on the computer.

Rogers said he thought about getting out of the business when photography went digital, but decided to make the transition. These days he doesn’t have any plans to quit.

“If I went home I’d feel like I have to work,” he said.