Janko was born in 1967 in Aachen, Germany. He graduated in Journalism, Art History, and History of the Middle Ages at Freie Universität Berlin, and studied in Perugia, Italy. As a freelance journalist, he wrote mainly about art, but also witnessed and reported events like the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 2000, he was invited to develop the online edition of the national daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau as managing editor. Next to developing the web site, he introduced the broader online use of photography. Since 2006, Janko lives with his wife in New York City. Janko now specializes in fine art photography.