Collection: Janet Macoska

Cleveland native Janet Macoska grew up with a love for rock and roll and photography. As early as age 12, she combined both, photographing rock duo Sonny and Cher at local radio station WKYC. That photo became her first published photo in a 1967 issue of Teen Screen Magazine.

If rock and roll has been the soundtrack of your life, photojournalist Janet Macoska has provided many of the visuals. Since 1974, Janet Macoska has been capturing rock’s greatest on film…and now in pixels (digital). Among the publications who have used her photos are Rolling Stone, People, US, Vogue, American Photo, Creem, 16, Teen Beat, MOJO, NY Times, and London Times . VH1, Bravo and A&E regularly uses Macoska’s vast rock archive in their “rockumentaries.” Her work is in the permanent collection of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, The Smithsonian Museum of American History, The National Portrait Gallery in London and in Hard Rock Café restaurants, hotels and casinos all around the planet.

David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Devo, Heart, AC/DC, and The Kinks are just some of the artists who have used her work on their albums. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum presented a retrospective exhibition of her photography in 2003 and 2004 entitled “It’s Only Rock and Roll.” That exhibition has since toured to The Women’s Museum in Dallas (2009), The Canadian Exposition in Toronto (2010), The Cornell Museum of Fine Arts in Orlando (2011), South Shore Arts in Indiana (2012), and The Longwood Center for Visual Arts in Virginia (2013).

Presently, Macoska is primary photographer for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Playhouse Square Center, The Cleveland International Film Festival, and also shoots freelance for corporate and music clients. She often lectures at museums and universities about her career as a photographer in the music industry.

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