Jini Dellaccio

Jini Dellaccio (née Duckworth; January 31, 1917 – July 3, 2014)

Born and raised on a family farm in Indiana, Jini (pronounced "Jeanie") Duckworth's father was an auto mechanic and her mother was a beautician. Her large family was artistically and musically inclined. Jini's mother was a self-taught violinist, her father played drums, and her sister played piano.[2] After graduating from high school in 1935 she played saxophone with a number of different all-girl Swing jazz touring revues for 12 years.^[3]

While performing in

By 1964 the members of one of the Northwest's most popular rock bands, the Wailers,^[8] based in Tacoma, were looking to upgrade the quality of the cover art of their records, which they released on their own label, Etiquette Records. They contacted graphic designer John Vlahovich, who recommended they speak to promotions-man Barrie R. Jackson. Jackson had seen Dellaccio's exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum, and suggested that they ask her to do the album cover shoot. She agreed, but instead of photographing them at her home studio, she had them walk around a local park. The resultant photos were used on the Vlahovich-designed cover of the album Wailers, Wailers, Everywhere, which was a regional best-seller. Dellaccio was soon in high demand, her photographic style seeming to have captured what DJ and concert impresario Pat O'Day described as "the Northwest cool".^[9]

Although twenty or more years older than most of her subjects, Dellaccio felt an affinity for the Northwest's rough-edged proto-punk music scene and its characters. Avoiding the standard, formal studio techniques of the time, she frequently photographed bands outdoors, and utilized the unique background of the Pacific Northwest as the frame for her album cover shoots. "I started doing pictures, started getting inspired. Because I could see how beautiful these kids looked out in the trees," she said.^[5] Dellaccio's signature approach was to have the bands climbing trees, peering through the mist, or surrounded by great works of architecture and sculpture in their Beatle boots.^[4] The intrinsic weather, namely the mist, of the Northwest was a recurring feature in her photography.^[3] Her black-and-white images of sharply-dressed young musicians, sometimes clowning but more often skulking in naturally beautiful settings created an unusual and distinctive look. Dellaccio did not limit her work to the outdoors. She utilized a variety of different spaces. Her in-studio work often made use of moody lighting and staggered, non-uniform poses. Her photography also featured locations such as the University of Washington, where she photographed musicians at iconic sites such as Red Square, Suzzallo Library, and the 4 Pillars.^[10] Her unique style placed her firmly in the vanguard of a new and more creative style of commercial photography that would take root in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Among the dozens of Northwest bands she photographed were Merrilee Rush & the Turnabouts,

As notice of Dellaccio's skills spread, she occasionally travelled to California for jobs, including a memorable 1967 session with Neil Young, which was featured in Neal Young News, 2009.[12] "[Jini] said, ‘If you get on the roof, we'd have the sky.’ So he said, ‘I can get up there all right. Now what?’ And [Jini] said, ‘Fly like a bird.’"^[5]

She continued regularly photographing bands and musicians into the 1970s.

Later life and career

In the 1980s, Jini and Carl Dellaccio moved to a retirement community in

Beginning in the late '80s, there have been several retrospective exhibitions of her work. Her Aim Is True, a documentary on her life and work by British filmmaker Karen Whitehead, had its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 26, 2013.^[13]

Dellaccio later switched to a Hasselblad digital camera. She continued to honor her promise to Carl through her photography. Jini died at age 97, on July 3, 2014, in Seattle.^[14]

References