Archives West Finding Aid

Jini Dellaccio was born Jini Duckworth on a family farm in Indiana on January 31, 1917, to parents Paul and Merle. She was interested in music throughout her childhood, and after graduating from high school in 1935 she played the saxophone for several all-female swing jazz bands, including the Sweethearts of Swing. Her bands toured all over the United States, and Dellaccio initially continued her musical career in Chicago, where she moved with her husband, Carl, following their marriage in 1946. She soon changed careers and began studying painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was as a student that Dellaccio first became interested in photography when she took photographs to document her paintings.

Although she had no formal photography training, Dellaccio began a career as a freelance fashion photographer in 1953, when she and Carl moved to Long Beach, California. She continued her work following their move to Gig Harbor, Washington, in 1961. After a successful exhibit of her photographs at the Tacoma Art Museum, she shot the cover of The Wailers’ 1965 album Wailers, Wailers, Everywhere. Her work gained notice throughout the rock and roll community, and she soon began photographing other local bands based in the Pacific Northwest. She also photographed rock concerts at what was then known as the Seattle Coliseum. Some of the bands she photographed there include the Beach Boys, the Who, and the Rolling Stones.

In the 1970s, Dellaccio changed the focus of her photography from musicians and bands to architecture and other local businesses. After moving to Arizona in the 1990s, Jini Dellaccio returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2009. Although she was in her 90s by this time, she continued to exhibit her work at local galleries. Her career was also the subject of the 2013 documentary Her Aim is True, which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Jini Dellaccio died on July 3, 2014 at the age of 97.