Janet Macoska: Legendary Rock Photographer

Janet Macoska was 12 years old when she snapped her first celebrity photograph.

“I was always on the phone to the disc jockeys at the stations. … They were next to my heroes, the musicians, but they were also my heroes. I offered to come down and help them answer fan mail,” Macoska says. “I ran a fan club for one of the disc jockeys. His name was … Big Jack Armstrong, from WKYC radio.”

Running the fan club gave Macoska access to the radio station, where celebrity musicians stopped by to be interviewed before playing in the Cleveland area. Big Jack had a TV show in the station’s building — and had Sonny & Cher on before their concert at Cleveland’s Music Hall in 1966.

Always with her camera, Macoska was there. She took a few photos — and got an autograph.

Her first in print, Macoska’s photo ran in Teen Screen magazine’s fan photo section for $2 in 1967 — and kicked off a lifetime of passionate photography. Now, almost 60 years later, her career has led her to photograph names such as Slash, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen, Alice Cooper and Aretha Franklin.

“There’s always a fan inside of me. That’s the reason that I do what I do, is because I love this music,” Macoska says. “I stood in front of Paul McCartney and David Bowie and heroes like that, and photographed photos of them and keep it fairly cool … because I switch into the photographer mode.”

Find her photos in the book All Access Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Photography of Janet Macoska. She is also the subject of a new documentary from Cleveland filmmakers, currently seeking sponsorship. Her photographs are in the collections of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Akron Art Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London — where her photo of McCartney hung next to an Annie Leibovitz portrait of John Lennon — and more.

“It’s beyond pinching yourself. It’s knowing that somehow you got into this upper tier of photographers, and that you accomplished something way beyond I’d ever thought I would accomplish,” she says of the McCartney photo. “The 12-year-old self could never have conceived that that would have happened.”

The accomplished photographer shot Blossom Music Center, including famed acts such as Elton John, Barry Manilow, the Go-Go’s, Whitney Houston, Duran Duran and more. She shares her memories — and how those moments impacted her.

“Linda Ronstadt would have been one that I would have shot simply because she’s just one of the most amazing voices ever in a singer. She just has such range, and she’s got a lot of class. I had seen her do her more rock and roll kind of music …. but the one that she did at Blossom, she had a whole orchestra. … I got great photos.

The Dolly Parton and Emmylou [Harris] show … both, even in ’78, they were icons by that time. … Emmylou, I knew her music — she hung with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. She was in that crowd with Jackson Browne. … She’s just a wonderful voice and a wonderful person to photograph. … And then there’s Dolly Parton, who is unlike anyone else you will ever see on the planet Earth. … Had the big wigs or hairdos — just big as you can be. She showed off talents, like she played banjo, she played guitar — she pretty much ruled the stage.

He [Michael Stanley] had trouble not selling out — I mean, he sold out everything. … Those three days at Blossom [in 1981] were just a revolution — a revolution for himself and the band and also for those fans. … Since I was running around shooting everything, the energy was palpable, and it just felt like a big love fest. I mean, I watched fans bring flowers and hold up banners, and I think several ran onstage and tried to tackle him. That’s the mark of a good concert — when you have the fans trying to jump onstage.

Bon Jovi — July 16, 1985 — opened for Ratt. … But Bon Jovi was who everybody was interested in. … The audience was already on board. … This was an area that was very fertile and open to new artists once they adopted you. … Bon Jovi benefited by the fact that they were all the things that Cleveland/Akron people loved.

One of my favorite photos is a shot I did of Angus Young, the guitar player in AC/DC. … The problem with Angus is he’s a head thrasher. … In film, you can only stop action at a certain speed, and he was faster than any film that there was. … Besides getting a fast film that allows me to slow down action, I thought, What else is going to help me? Well, a lot of light. … I needed him to be in a place where he’s getting hit by a front spot and a back spot. ... What the back spot did was freeze all of his action, including his hair, including the sweat that was … popping off his head. … It worked out tremendously. I loved that picture, still love that picture. And so did AC/DC, they used it on an album.

I don’t think I had seen Tina Turner up to that time. … She went onstage … if you were sitting in the amphitheater part, the pavilion, her energy could blow you out into the grass somewhere, because she just took no prisoners. I’ve never seen, I believe, such a dynamic female performer. … She was a veteran of performing and knew how to grab an audience. It’s her voice. It’s her dancing. … Her visage, her face — she just is mesmerizing. And you look at her and you say, This woman has attitude, and this woman has power.

Tom Petty is a guy that it’s just in his blood to be a great rocker, and he was. … He was well-liked by everybody. His music is something that so many people could enjoy. It didn’t hold its own corner in the world — it welcomed in a lot of people.

I was a thousand, million percent committed to doing what I did in my career. … I’m also privileged that I had doors open that let me photograph musical heroes as well — and to preserve that image for all time.”

— as told to Cameron Gorman

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