John Lacko started photographing in 1965 because of his interest in drag racing. He was a photojournalist in the U. S. A. F. He started the Kalamazoo Documentary Photography Projects for the Kalamazoo Public Museum in 1984. Since then the project has repeated in 1990, 2000, 2011 and 2020. He was a contributing independent contractor for the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1993 to 2012. He was the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra photographer for 26 years. John considers himself to be a location editorial photographer.