Over the past decade, NRECA Senior Multimedia Producer Denny Gainer documented the people, places and moments that define America’s electric cooperatives. From congressional hearing rooms and crowded convention centers to remote villages and back roads, his photographs captured both the scale of co-op impact and the quiet, human details that give each story its heart.

What follows is a small sampling of Gainer’s work along with some of his behind-the-scenes perspective on these images. The photos span leadership and linework, youth voices and policy debates, celebration and crisis—and together, they reflect a career telling the story of how electric cooperatives serve communities, respond to change and power lives across the country and beyond.

The October 2023 RE Magazine cover story, featuring United Electric Cooperative's Branden Bauer, examined the Pennsylvania co-op's changes in policy and culture after Bauer's contact incident.

“It was a daunting experience meeting Branden, having no idea how our time together would go given the seriousness and extent of his contact injuries," Gainer said. "But from the moment he extended his prosthetic to shake hands, he invited me into his altered life, explaining the circumstances of the contact and how he was adapting to being a field inspector instead of the lineman he had always loved being.”

From an October 2017 story on the International Lineman's Rodeo & Expo: Coming off hurricane season, electric cooperative lineworkers fared well among the 1,000 competitors at the International Lineman’s Rodeo & Expo. In this photo, Dary Roeser and his son, Caden, of Manhattan, Kansas, applaud the opening marching band, moments after drenching rains at dawn ended.

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson rehearses in the Music City Center ahead of the opening general session of NRECA's 2018 annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

From a September 2019 RE Magazine story on how co-ops are leading efforts to reverse dwindling rural health care access: This photo features Andrea, a front-desk trainee at Vincent House Hernando, a community-based mental health facility that Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative was instrumental in opening in 2017. The program taught skills to help the attendees return to the workforce.

From the March 2023 RE Magazine cover story on how cannabis grow houses were spreading to co-op country through the rapid legalization of marijuana: This photo features Michael Mizelle (left), head gardener and manager of Pharma Flower in Oklahoma, with Jeff Pollard, Indian Electric Cooperative’s vice president of engineering.

"Jeopardy!" host Ken Jennings delivers the keynote address at the closing general session of 2023 PowerXchange in Nashville, Tennessee. He mimicked fellow show champion James Holzhauer, whom he beat in The Greatest of All Time match in 2020.

From the September 2024 RE Magazine cover story: Navajo Nation resident Ella Bryant smiles in her doorway after Delta-Montrose Electric Association crews finished electrifying her home in the Chuska Mountain foothills in New Mexico.

Text from "The Star-Spangled Banner" streams across a teleprompter ahead of the opening general session at 2025 PowerXchange in Atlanta.

"Photography at its best freezes fleeting moments often missed by most," Gainer said. "This teleprompter test was only displayed briefly before disappearing."

From the July 2025 RE Magazine cover story: Billy Terry, deputy vice president and chief operating officer for Consumers Power, stands by Salmon Falls on the Santiam River near Elkhorn, Oregon, where the 2020 Beachie Creek wildfire burned more than 400,000 acres and killed five people.

"Heavy downpours over three days derailed many plans for our coverage, but, coupled with the fog, created a moody portrait," Gainer said. "Billy was a real trooper to stand there in the heavy rain for both the photo and video."

From the September 2025 RE Magazine cover story: NRECA Legislative Affairs Director Will Mitchell travels between Capitol Hill meetings on his electric bike on a 100-degree day in D.C.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., pauses for a portrait on Capitol Hill, taken for a story in South Carolina Living when the statewide association honored the congressman with the Electric Cooperative Outstanding Public Service Award.

Outgoing NRECA Board President Chris Christensen, a cattle rancher from Montana, sums up his tenure during an interview at the 2023 PowerXchange in Nashville. "With his signature cowboy hat, he was always a photogenic subject," Gainer said.

At the 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., left, and Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., then freshman lawmakers, discuss bipartisan unity.

At NRECA's 2020 annual meeting in New Orleans, Wynonna Judd, whose band Wynonna & The Big Noise performed at Entertainment Night, photobombs an audience member's selfie.

From the October 2023 RE Magazine cover story: Branden Bauer and wife, Katelyn, lift their daughter Harper on a walk near their home with younger daughter Addilyn. At the time of his contact injury, Branden remembered telling coworkers his wife was expecting, and they were preparing for the birth of Harper. The Bauers now have three daughters.