By Jenny Kane, Reno Gazette-Journal

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jan Aphelin paid her way through college by working as a “camera girl” snapping commissioned photos of the high rolling gamblers and highfalutin clients of Reno’s swankiest casinos and clubs.

“All Nighter” is one of Jan Aphelin’s photographs being exhibited at the Nevada Historical Society. Photo/Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society

She photographed the elite – some of them celebrities, including actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Tom Jones – gambling, drinking and hobnobbing. She earned a commission from her employer, a Las Vegas-based photography company, and charged the subjects $200 to $300 for a package of mostly posed glamour shots that took an hour to process and were delivered in a velvet folder.

But at the end of her shifts, she did not put away her cameras.

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