A Brief Context: My name is, obviously, Janson Jones. I'm a Floridian native, having grown up primarily in the Volusia county area of Ormond Beach (just north of Daytona Beach). I'm slouching my way into my mid-thirties and am a college English instructor. I primarily teach First-Year composition and literature courses. Growing up, I always had a three-way interest in Floridian literature, music, and wildlife. Professionally I went with the former, but I still heavily pursue my other two primary interests as hobbies.
Photographic History: I am not a professional photographer. Nor am I a professional biologist, ecologist, environmentalist, or whateverologist. Just a fan. Just a life long fan. My interst in photography goes back to when I was a child, but I didn't really start to take it seriously until around 2004. Since that time, literally January 1st of 2004, I have worked quite dilligently in trying to improve as a photographer, though my primary value is still placed in the act of photographing, not necessarily in the 'object' of the end photograph. Still, it's very rewarding to gain moderate improvements over tone and style - and there's much, much, much more for me to learn. More than anything, however, I value the experience of photography - from composing and executing the shots in the field, through processing the images, and ultimately to sharing these images online and engaging in discussions and dialogues regarding these themes and issues. In the end, I see photography as a community activity of dialogue and discourse. And, of course, of education.
Academic Background: I earned my Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Oklahoma, the former in Creative Writing and the latter in Modernity & Theory. My primary academic focus is Zora Neale Hurston, the Florida Federal Writers Project and methods of recording folklore in the 1930s (issues of technology, recording, etc). I'm particularly interested in running Bakhtinian reads on technology and folklore "collecting" during this time. Having said that, however, I am first and foremost a writing instructor. Most of my professional time is invested in my students and in pedagogy development. Such is the life of The Instructor.
Family Status: I am married to my glorious wife, Lori Mumpower. She is completing her PhD in Texts and Technologies, an emergent field within English. We have no hominid children, but we do have a family composed of a cat, a dog, a couple of snakes, a ferret, and a turtle. Things are about to change for us - - in July, we're moving to Anchorage, Alaska. We are currently researching and reading contemporary documentation on sock technology and how to prepare for the cold...
~ Janson Jones
http://floridana.typepad.com/weblog/
