Robert Bly (via Rothenberg, Kelly, and Lorca) popularized deep-image prose poetry that emphasized concentrating on concrete images to arrive at spiritual meaning. Decades later photographer Jody Servon and poet Lorene Delany-Ullman re-energize this concept with their gorgeous artist book SAVED: OBJECTS OF THE DEAD (Published by Artsuite, 2023). The collaborators gathered items of those who had passed and interviewed the survivors for stories and narrative. Each of Servon’s photographs is presented with clarity, the plain white background suggesting an almost relic-like presentation of ordinary objects—a colander, a high school diploma, a snow scraper, a charm bracelet, a scapular. Delany-Ullman’s prose poems are exquisite and tender. In “Alan’s Hairbrush,” she writes “It was genetics—Alan had good hair. He never left the house without his hair brushed into place and sprayed. His wife, Grace, claims that Alan had this Avon hairbrush longer than her, more than twenty-five years.” The book also includes essays and micro-essays by Cora Fisher, Sonya Clark, Alex Espinoza, Erika Hayasaki, Swati Khurana, and Leslie Gray Streeter.
You can read about Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman in a fascinating CNN interview:
https://www.cnn.com/style/saved-objects-dead-book-servon-delany-ullman/index.html
Congratulations, Jody and Lorene!
photo by Todd Turner
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Author: Denise Duhamel
