Lightkeeper
A Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Diversion Books
Publishing:6th Nov '25
£23.99
This title is due to be published on 6th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A luminous story of loss and resilience, Lightkeeper captures acclaimed photographer Stacy Bass’s personal journey through grief—and the art of keeping her parents’ legacy alive through memory and photography.
In 1995, when a tragic seaplane accident on Block Island claimed her father’s life, Bass’s world shattered. She began to write as a way to process her excruciating grief, while gathering the pieces of his life through collected photographs. Some twenty-five years later, her mother was diagnosed with, and ultimately died from, pancreatic cancer after a one-year battle against that harrowing disease. During her mother’s illness, Bass created a living tribute of images and words that built a community of support around her mother when she needed it most.
By collecting and sharing photographs of her parents, Michael and Jessica Waldman, Bass recognized how photographs serve not merely as records but as powerful portals into memory—gateways to the stories that exist just outside the frame. Filled with stunning prose and vibrant photography, this evocative memoir reveals how Bass became the "lightkeeper" of her family's legacy, preserving their stories for future generations. For anyone who has loved deeply and lost tragically, Lightkeeper offers both solace and inspiration—reminding us that the light of those who have been lost always endures.
“A riveting exploration of memory through images, Bass takes the reader on a poignant journey of love and excruciating loss. Lightkeeper so adeptly captures the gray area of recollection: the 'proof' of photographs versus the accuracy of our own memory. A beautiful, inspiring read! We live in a time where images are ubiquitous, and almost everyone is a photographer, documenting the world around her with a phone or a camera. When we stop long enough to look back at the images we have collected over time, it can help redefine one’s relationship with one’s past. Bass movingly reminds us to keep looking!”
—Lynsey Addario, Photojournalist and New York Times bestselling author of It’s What I Do: a Photographer’s Life of Love and War
“Turning her attentive photographer’s eye toward the larger-than-life father who raised her, and the accident that tragically tore him from her life, Stacy Waldman Bass achieves a dazzling act of alchemy, excavating joy from grief and shining light into darkness. Lightkeeper is a gleaming tribute to the ways love shapes us, and a gorgeous testament of the power of memory to breathe life into those we have lost.”
—Nicole Graev Lipson, USA Today bestselling author of Mothers and Other Fictional Characters
“The undeniable dualities of memory, love, and loss abound in this elegant, touching memoir.”
—Steve Leder, New York Times bestselling author of The Beauty of What Remains and For You When I am Gone
“Stacy Waldman Bass writes like an angel, and, like her photographs, her words go beyond merely capturing a moment. With courage, wonder, and immense love, she ventures beyond the frame to the shimmering, outwardly rippling emotional legacy of every memory, every person she turns the fine lens of her attention toward. Like any brilliant archivist, she wants nothing to be lost, from the deepest griefs to the tiniest, most fleeting childhood joys. She has kept it all. And how lucky, how blessed we are that she has given it to us.”
—Marisa de los Santos, New York Times bestselling author of Belong to Me and I’ll Be Your Blue Sky
ISBN: 9798895150566
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 23mm
Weight: 544g
256 pages