Nearly two years after a Christmas Day tornado tore the roof off her Mobile photography studio, Laura Cantrell Rodgers has rebuilt on the very same lot, determined not to let the storm push her family’s business anywhere else. High in a tree behind the new building, a tattered scrap of fabric remains stuck in the branches, one of the last physical traces of the twister that ripped through the property on December 25, 2012, before continuing its destructive path toward Murphy High School and beyond.
Rodgers, who has run Laura Cantrell Photography since 1992, was out of town with her husband, Clay, when the tornado hit. The couple had opted for a low-key holiday trip to New Orleans that year instead of their usual overseas getaway. They had barely settled in for dinner when the phone calls started. Frank Schottgen, owner of a local alarm company, told Laura there had been multiple glass breakages at the studio and that the roof appeared to be gone. The couple cut their trip short and drove back through the storm to find the western wall of the building collapsed and the roof, which had only recently been replaced after Hurricane Katrina, caved in entirely.
By the time they arrived, Laura’s studio assistant, Angel Alford, along with friends and family, were already pulling salvageable items from the wreckage. Antique clothing used in photo shoots, along with decades of collected props, were destroyed, though a handful of pieces, including a well-loved green needlepoint chair, survived and were eventually reunited at the new studio.
Rather than pause the business, Rodgers had her home deck enclosed and set up a makeshift studio there within weeks, resuming portrait sessions by mid-January. She continued operating out of her house for nearly two years while the new building took shape. She said being raised in a family business, her parents always worked, so the family kept going without excuses, noting that four employees depend on the business for their paychecks.
Rebuilding on the same site was never in question for Rodgers, who grew up in the surrounding neighborhood and never seriously considered relocating. She hired architect Tim Spafford to design the new building and Bobby DeMuoy to construct it, a process that took longer than expected because the structure had to meet updated federal energy codes. The result is a roughly 3,000-square-foot, highly energy-efficient building with a ground-floor kitchen and offices, plus an upstairs studio with ceiling heights reaching 14 to 16 feet and a new dressing room the old building never had.
An unexpected upside emerged from the disaster. The new building finally has windows facing north, letting in the soft, even light that Rodgers and her staff had wished for in the old studio. Rodgers has also expanded her collection of photography backdrops to 68 options and was preparing seasonal displays, including a fall-themed setup and rolling Christmas trees for the holiday season, as she prepared to return to full studio operations after nearly two years working from home.