John Rocklin was born September 11, 1962 in New York City. His father is noted sculptor Raymond Rocklin.
Starting at a very early age, John's father took him to Washington Square Park (NYC) every Sunday, exposing him to great music. “I stood right next to Bob Dylan,Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, as they did what they did, although I can’t remember details ... but that’s probably when I 'got it' -- hearing the real stuff at an early age.”
John grew up in Cortland, NY, on the Hudson River. "It seemed that Pete Seeger and friends were always somewhere just around the corner, playing for free for some cause or another." It was during those years that John taught himself to play the guitar with the help of a few lessons, and would venture off to concerts and music events, often hitchhiking by himself to see Muddy Waters, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, and countless others that left him with strong spiritual and visual impressions of these masters.
In 1996, John met and befriended harmonica legend Little Sammy Davis. The meeting presented John with many photo opportunities, which inspired him to pursue his interest in Artistic Photography. "At some point, I just looked around and could'nt stand to go another day without at least trying to document what I saw going on before me."
Inspired by Dorothea Lange & Dick Waterman, John, while earning a living driving a truck, set out to learn photography and try to portray what he was seeing so that it could be seen by others thtough his eyes, preserving moments in time artistically and historically.
What began in 2001, with a 2.0 mega pixel Sony camera, has turned into a self – imposed mission to document great musicians near and far with his camera. His current portfolio consists of tens of thousands of photographs of musicians and performing artists.
John who is also co-founder of The Honesdale Roots & Rhythm Festival, sings and plays guitar in an Americana band called The Crackers.
