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Magnetic surf photographer from Honolulu, Hawaii; a pioneering female whose exemplary work took a back seat to the  sultry bikini-clad figure that Rogers' herself cultivated and presented. "Shirley Rogers' colleagues used to joke with her," as a surf writer later noted, "that there were more shots 

Rogers was born [1953] in Japan to a career Air Force father and a Japanese mother and lived there until age nine, when the family moved to Texas. The Rogers' moved again, when Shirley was 16, this time to Honolulu, where she enrolled at James Campbell High, an Ewa Beach-based school for military families. It was here that Rogers discovered an interest in photography, taking classes and entering photography contests; she also learned to surf at a local break called Empty Lots. 

In 1971, just after Rogers graduated, her parents announced they were moving back to Texas. Rogers not only chose to stay in Hawaii, but immediately moved to the North Shore, where she shared a house with pro surfer Jeff Hakman's girlfriend. Rogers later said she fell into surf photography almost by accident. "There was honestly nothing out there to do. Me and my girlfriends, all the chicks on the North Shore, we'd all go lay on the beach at Waimea. But there's only so much gossip and so many 

 mags you can read before you get really bored. So I just started taking my camera. After a while, people were going, 'Oh, you got some good shots.'" 

Surf filmmakers Jack McCoy and Dick Hoole loaned Rogers a telephoto lens and gave her some work in 1975, which in turn helped her find a place in the fully male-dominated lineup of surf photographers who spent much of each winter on the North Shore. A point in Rogers' favor, career-wise, was the fact that she was dating North Shore heavy Eddie Rothman, which afforded her a level of access and respect unheard of among rookie photographers. 

While she often traveled overseas and was among the first photographers to visit Java and shoot the endless lefts at Grajagan, Rogers is best known for her work on the North Shore, where she mainly shot from the beach and earned a reputation for tight, crisp, well-composed images. Other photographers, meanwhile, often pivoted their lenses toward Rogers, who made an effort to show up for work in silver jewelry, oversized movie-star sunglasses, and the latest, most revealing swimwear. She was chatty and friendly, but could also, at a moment's notice, look utterly imperious, as surf writer Bean Flemister noted in his 2017 

There's an iconic image from the 1970s of a dusky woman in a swimsuit taking photos from a beach on the North Shore. Actually, there are many—her camera [is] mounted on an old Hollywood-style tripod with wooden legs sinking into the sand. In these photos, she's young and fit and exotic, often with a hand on her hip, sweat beading at her brow, her body language declaring, "Perform for me, boy."

Rogers' photos ran in surf publications worldwide, but much of her best work was featured in 

magazine. Not surprisingly, however, given the period, when 

 did a short profile on Rogers in 1981, the only two images are of Shirley herself, vamping, and the article ends with a double entendre about how the "competition has gotten stiffer and stiffer" since her arrival on the scene. Rogers was listed on the 

Photography was never a full-time occupation for Rogers. She did some modeling and appeared as an extra in 

 (that's her raised swimsuit-covered bottom in the opening credits as she floats in Tom Selleck's arms while snorkeling at Waikiki). In 1984, Rogers launched a short-lived swimwear company called Osé—French for risque. An early ad featured Rogers in a string bikini and high heels, with the tag-line reading "Fit to be Tied!" Mostly, however, Rogers worked in sales and marketing. 

Rogers, Shirley

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

The Sunday Joint

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

The Sunday Joint