Stuff You Gotta Watch: Her Aim Is True
The Sonics. The Who. Neil Young. The Mamas & The Papas. Merrilee Rush. The Yardbirds. The list of artists Jini Dellaccio photographed feels mythical and nearly endless. Considered the first female rock photographer, Dellaccio carved her own path with a singular perspective that captured the freshness and constant motion of an exciting scene.
Her Aim Is True tells the story of her career, revealing a “just do it” mentality that made her a direct participant in the music of her subjects by showing what it looked like to her. Just like the first bands she photographed, Dellaccio’s approach was gritty, confrontational, to the point—and, above all, genius. Operating mostly in the Pacific Northwest, she was submerged in the rawness of garage rock from the very beginning, which led her to develop a unique style via a “punk” attitude—years before the term had even been invented.
When the documentary initially came out, Dellaccio was still alive and photographing at the age of 95. She passed a year later, in 2014, on the same day of the year Brian Jones and Jim Morrison had. The timing somehow felt like a symbolic confirmation of the central role she played in rock mythology.
Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.