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.

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Publication date: September 16, 2025
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Praise for Lightkeeper

  • “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 verses the accuracy of our own memory. A beautiful, inspiring read!

    Lynsey Addario, Photojournalist and New York Times bestselling author of It’s What I Do: a Photographer’s Life of Love and War

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

Stacy Waldman Bass is an author, artist and photographer.

Photo Credit: Pamela Einarsen

Explore more of Stacy’s work here:

From her first solo exhibition in 1988, Stacy’s fine art work has become part of many private, corporate and hotel collections and her images and unique perspective continue to tap into the emotion and sensibility of a wide spectrum of viewers. Select pieces of her fine art work are currently represented by Swoon Gallery in Westport, CT.

Always with an interest in all things visual, her career ambitions have taken her through numerous magazine positions, including a senior position at fine art photography start-up: On Seeing. Stacy is a graduate of Barnard College/Columbia University and of NYU School of Law where she concentrated on Copyright, Art and Entertainment law. She later used her expertise to become vice president of a publicly traded motion picture and television company, Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc.

Stacy has been capturing the essence of place through an intuitive use of light, color and composition for almost two decades. Her signature images of architecture, interiors and gardens have resulted in three solo exhibitions and numerous awards. Her photography has been featured extensively in books and magazines including at home (where she was lead photographer for more than 10 years), Garden Design, Luxe Interiors + Design, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Veranda, AD, Horticulture, Living Etc., British Homes & Gardens, The Wall Street Journal and many more. She is the author of two bestselling and critically acclaimed monographs celebrating the American landscape: In the Garden (Melcher Media/Perseus Books, 2012) and Gardens at First Light (Moffly Media, 2015).

Lightkeeper is her first memoir.