Friday, February 10, 2023

When images combine with words - Donna Tramontozzi long remembers

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Sometimes words aren't enough.

That was the case for my dear friend and fellow writer, Donna Tramotozzi. She and I worked together back in the olden days at Digital Equipment, she a very senior consultant and me a very junior one. After that we were in a writing group together and I was mesmerized by the short pieces Donna turned out, heartbreaking work as she tried to put into words what she'd experienced when over the course of two decades she lost four brothers to premature death.

Along the way, Donna started to take photographs, and then to become even more serious as a photographer than she was as a writer. Her pictures, combined with words, at last, enabled her to express her sadness.

Donna has just published a brilliant book of her photographs and memories. LONG REMEMBERINGS OF GOODBYES is gorgeous, simply gorgeous. And heartbreaking, of course. The images complement the thoughts and vice versa.

The cover of the book is haunting... and hints at what readers will find within.
Recently, the fine art daily LENSCRATCH reviewed Donna's book. 
Long Rememberings of Goodbyes, is a profound effort to honor and revisit some of the darkest days of her life. As a young woman growing up in a large Catholic family in Boston, her life was put on hold over and over as the losses mounted. It’s a kind of grief that remains under the surface, but is ever present. Now Tramontozzi brings these memories into focus with a book that uses the natural world as sanctuary, as a place to land, in all its remarkable beauty. When combined with personal text, she creates a powerful and deeply felt journey into the fragile past.
I love that phrase: "uses the natural world as sanctuary."

I am so pleased to be able to host Donna here today. I asked her to talk about her book and how photographs and phrases combine in her work to a single artform. 

DONNA TRAMONTOZZI: My book, Long Rememberings of Goodbyes, is a reflection on the memories of the premature deaths of my four brothers.

I had written about my brothers in the 80’s and 90’s when they died, but ultimately I stopped before getting to any final format. Last year before I produced my book, I decided to clarify what kind of format I wanted those reflections to take before I started. 

I returned to those original pieces and was shocked at how much I had forgotten. That was my first lesson on how memories merge and change with time’s passage. Oddly, at the same time, some events were as clear as the day they happened.

What was it about those events? They still had the same strong emotional impact on me.

With those two observations in mind, I realized I needed new writing. The writing needed to be like my current memories — snippets, no background explanation, brief emotional scenes. I wanted to compress each memory down to its essence. It turned out that “brief” also allowed me to be in that moment, capture it and move on. I could write in the same way I remembered.

Most writers know the fear of the blank page, but I stopped writing because I just couldn’t stay in that sad place. Instead, I turned to photography with nature as my subject. Taking images while hiking was my solace. Getting into the zone where everything disappeared except taking the photo and experiencing the natural beauty became the way I survived their deaths. 

I knew from the beginning that my book would be text and images. What kind of images was my dilemma. Images of them? Images of absence? Neither of those felt right to me.

Besides the fact I wanted to use images, I knew there was a need for them. When early reviewers read the writing, they said they needed a rest to absorb the text. “Even a blank page would work,” someone said. It would have, but the images had other purposes. 

I also wanted the book to have an arc to it. Beginning, climax, end. The images needed to reflect that arc. Lastly, the feeling of the images needed to reinforce the feeling of the text, not to explicate, but to echo the same feeling. 

I tried lots of images without success until I realized, “Write what you know,” works for other arts. 

My photography subject was nature, so the images for the book should be of nature. 

Last winter I took some images of translucent ice on the lake where we summered as children. The images were abstract, unusual and I loved them. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure how to talk about them so I asked a smart friend. Phrases like “form of suspended stardust” and “searching the universe to provide a sense of solace and connection” pointed the way towards metaphor. 

Metaphor.

The arts share so much.

Last spring, I found myself in a Memorial Cypress Grove in Point Lobos, California. I felt like I was in a memorial grove and once I came across some algae growing on the cypress trees, I knew I had the images I needed to echo the most emotional writing in the book. An algae that attached to the cypresses, changing the trees, but not killing them. Kismet?

HALLIE: The book is, as I said, simply gorgeous. It can be purchased at https://www.dtramontozzi.com/11657038-about-copy.

Donna's journey got me thinking about times in my life when words just weren't up to the healing I needed. If I were a photographer with Donna's eye and artistry, shadows would be my ice and algae.

What about you?

36 comments:

  1. What a wonderful tribute to your brothers, Donna . . .

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    1. I agree. And such a long time coming.

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    2. Thank you. They might have said, "What took you so long."

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  2. Donna, thank you for sharing your journey. I have always found solace in nature, a sanctuary, as your reviewer put it.

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    1. I think there are people who truly live with constant awareness of the nature around them. It makes for a richer life when you can really "see."

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    2. Nature keeps you going.

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  3. Donna, congratulations on your beautiful book. I am moved by your story. Please tell us a bit more about your realization that "...memories merge and change with time's passage." I have also noticed that, sometimes with alarm, sometimes as a comfort.

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    1. It's something I particularly notice when I talk about a shared experience with someone who was there with me, and what they remember (where it was, when it was, what happened...) makes me feel as if we live in separate time warps. Sometimes they'll even tell me, "And you weren't there!)

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    2. There were four funerals and at the time each one of them was unique. Now that so much time has passed, I can't remember if that was Paul's funeral or Bill's or Mike's or Stephen's. They have conflated into one funeral. The same is true of many other events. At the time I thought I'd always remember all the details.

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  4. Congratulations on your publication! I'm anxious to read it. I'm a flower and garden photographer. While I seek the sheer perfection of a rose against the dim sky, or a closeup of a hydrangea blossom, the most revealing pictures are flowers dotted with rain droplets or crumpled as they bloom and fade. As a mystery writer, poisonous plants are part of my repertoire.

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    1. So interesting... for me I'm fascinated by bugs on flowers. Irridescent pollen on a bee...

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  5. Losing four brothers is a lot of body blows to the soul. Donna, I'm so glad you've found such a positive expression of and healing of your grief and the memories it dealt you.

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  6. I've found that laughter helps ease the pain. My sister and I share stories about our younger sister and our parents and that joy and mirth balance out the pain and sadness.

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  7. Hugs, Donna. This post is especially meaningful to me as yesterday was the second anniversary of my brother's death.

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  8. The reviewer had me at "deeply felt journey into the fragile past." This book sounds like it will be an important and powerful book for many. Thanks Donna and best wishes.

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  9. This book is a journey I would like to take with you, Donna. Nature is a huge solace for me. I think if I tried to put together images and words to express the losses in my own life, I'd use foods for the images.

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  10. Oh, yes - nature. I've seen news stories where doctors are now prescribing it as an antidepressant. And the Japanese have a term for it - shinrin yoku (forest bathing). I believe scientists are learning that inhaling phytoncides put out by plants helps our immune system.

    I particularly love photographs that look at nature up close, rather than always as a scene or landscape, so algae and ice sound terrific.

    I live near Lake Champlain, and this warm winter we haven't had as much ice. but there is some. And if you spend time near ice you will not just see it, you will hear it. Sometimes it sings, sometimes it moans. I never tire of that.

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    1. I love the sounds of ice - the moans, the crackles, the snaps.

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  11. Hallie, today's post resonated with me because I have been taking photos since I was a young child. For some reason, I had this image of you and your grandchildren putting together a photo album and looking at photos, sharing memories.

    Though I could write a book about what photography means to me, I will try to keep this brief. Queen Alexandra of England (the former Princess of Denmark) was congenitally deaf and she was the First member of the Royal Family to use a Brownie camera. On my first visit to England with my family, we visited the Royal Mews. There was an exhibit of many photographs taken by Queen Alexandra. There was a collection of flash cards with photos of all members of the Royal family. There were so many people with Queen Victoria's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Photography is a medium of communication ? when there are no words.

    When I was a young child, I went to a 50th wedding anniversary for a relative who was born while Queen Victoria was still on the throne. Believe it or not, I was the only person there under the age of 12 and I was so bored that I just picked up the family camera and went around the room taking pictures of everyone! LOL

    When I take a photo, I notice that I focus on the present moment at the time. I took many photos over the years. When I look at photos, it helps me remember the event. Sometimes I forget that I met someone then when I see the picture, I remember meeting the person for a brief minute!

    Interesting mention about shadows. I do not know what someone would say about my photos. I have an IG full of photos.

    Deepest condolences to Donna for your losses.

    Diana

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    1. Sounds like if you wrote that book, it would be quite a story.

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    2. I think shadows would be a fascinating. I still remember the use of shadows in the movie Casablanca. For those who have seen the movie, it is a masterpiece of light at nighttime producing shadows. Some errie, some artistic, just amazing.

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  12. We are part of nature. That's one reason it is so comforting.

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  13. Words and images paired together create powerful meanings. Sincere condolences on your losses, Donna, and many congratulations on creating this beautiful remembrance.

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  14. I, too, lost my brother prematurely and the one thing I have learned on this grief journey is that it never ends. There will never be a day where I don't long for my brother or wish I could see him just one more time. Finding solace in nature is a beautiful way to remember your brothers, Donna. I haven't found my way yet but maybe someday I will. Thank you for sharing your work with us. It's an inspiration.

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    1. I didn't know nature was my solace for a long time. But I eventually, realized it. Good luck finding yours.

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