Since 2001, Joanne Bambino Hall has been helping people preserve, publish, and showcase their photos in personalized albums and keepsakes. She offers parties, classes, monthly workshops, and online events, as well as weekend and weeklong retreats. Joanne and her team of Creative Memories™ Advisors and Forever Ambassadors, operating as Life Preservers, are devoted to teaching, motivating, and encouraging their customers and each other. Her business, Everything Photos with Joanne, offers Total Photo Solutions.
Joanne’s passion for preserving photos and memorabilia developed from an early age. A victim of parental alienation, Joanne was raised between the homes of her divorced parents and other relatives. She loved looking at the framed photos of family and friends, vacations, and holidays that lined the walls of hallways and staircases. She recalls the feeling of joy as she relived happier times when her parents were still together.
Growing up, Joanne observed the way her mother and maternal aunt dealt with family photos during difficult times. Her mother’s practice was to “not so neatly” use scissors to cut people out of photos, permanently deleting them from the family photo albums. Her aunt had a large photo collage hanging in the hallway, with Band-Aids carefully placed over the pictures of estranged family members. Her stepmom gave Joanne all of her father’s photo albums after his passing in 2019. It was then that she would finally see the missing pieces of her mom’s photos.
Through these experiences, Joanne became intrigued with how families handle their photos, in good times and in bad, particularly with regard to alienation, grief, and tragedy.
In 2001, she conducted a fundraising event for a family who had tragically lost their five-year-old daughter in a car accident. Through her work on behalf of the family, Joanne came to understand the healing power of photos and memories and how beneficial they can be in the grieving process.
Several years later, the lesson hit home when Joanne’s sister Dawn was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Joanne and her husband Michael later adopted Dawn’s six-year-old daughter Deanna.
Joanne is passionate about teaching that photos are not only a snapshot of our past but can also be a powerful part of the healing process. Photos and memories help us to grieve, allow us to celebrate our beloved family, friends, and pets and reconnect us with meaningful memories.
Our photos and memories and the beautiful life we live are all part of a healing journey. The journaling we include with our photos tells the stories that help improve our quality of life and reduce anxiety as we process our emotions along the way. I am honored to help guide people on their journey.
