My Biography
This is my opportunity to describe my photographic background and how I got here.

An informal chat about my years of photographic experience: 

DESIGN PHOTO is a one-man show. My love of cameras began years ago in junior high school in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Over the years I have owned a retail camera store, commercial photography business, and have spent many hours with my fingers dipped in darkroom chemicals.  My pictures have appeared in regional magazines, newspapers, books, and on most of the walls of my home. 

My experience in architectural photography began early-on as my father, a long time AIA Architect, instilled in me that the parallel lines found on architect's renderings should be replicated in the images of the still print. 

My life-long profession, however, has not been as a photographer.  In my four Navy years, I worked in an air traffic control tower. I later joined the Federal Aviation Administration and spent 34-years as an air traffic controller. It was during those years that I co-existed as a photographer/writer/researcher both for the FAA and as a part of my "outside" personal endeavors. 

In the early 1970's, I began work on a picture history of Nassau County, Florida.  It was completed and released on July 4, 1976, the nation's 200th anniversary.  That was my first venture into serious years of historic photo reproduction and research.  The book's title was Yesterday's Reflections, going on to five revised editions over the years.  The last two printings were so heavily revised that the title was changed to Yesterday's Reflections II. 

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, I took a sabbatical from controlling aircraft to enjoyed a few years in the commercial photography and retail camera business.  It was then that my commercial photography business became DESIGN PHOTO.  With the air traffic control system in need of support after the controller’s strike of 1981, I returned full time to the FAA where I assumed the role of quality assurance specialist and unofficial public affairs person.

In the mid-1980's, I took thousands of pictures for FAA publications and published an FAA newsletter.  Two other projects came my way as the decade went by.  The FAA published a magazine format photo research project that I had written a few years prior entitled, "Early Aviation and Jacksonville's Air Route Traffic Control Center."  I co-authored and published a magazine for air traffic controllers that produced aviation related articles and photographs.  The latter effort was my first serious venture into layout and production. 

In the 1990's, I began work on the 4th edition of Yesterday's Reflections, requiring additional research and the computer scanning of most of the old original photographs to sharpen the image of the book and brought a noticeable change to the color of my hair. 

I retired from the FAA in early 1999, and devoted my first "retirement" years to the fourth and fifth editions of Yesterday's Reflections.  By the time the fifth edition was published, I was well into writing and photographing a coffee table book of historic old homes of Amelia Island (Florida) and the surrounding tidewater area – an architectural catalogue of early Amelia of the Victorian era. It was completed in a little over two years and released by February of 2003. 

I have now combined the lessons learned from my father, Dana B. Johannes, the skills I have acquired since, and my natural fascination with the structural and aesthetics of buildings large and small.  Add the skills available to our profession through digital photography and enhancement, I have the ability to reflect the effort and talents of the architect.  That is my focus.  

Jan Johannes, Design Photo Owner/Photographer

Call (904) 386-5694 or send me an e-mail