Westport Photographer Stacy Waldman Bass Releases Lightkeeper, a Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss

above: Stacy Waldman Bass, an creator, artist and photographer.
Photographs: Stacy by Pamela Einarsen Photography; others: contributed

 

For acclaimed photographer and longtime Westport resident Stacy Waldman Bass, storytelling has at all times been visible. But with the discharge of her memoir Lightkeeper: A Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss (Simon & Schuster/Audible) Bass turns her lens inward—buying and selling a digital camera for a pen to ship a stirring meditation on grief, resilience and the therapeutic energy of reminiscence.

In 1995, tragedy struck when her father, Michael Waldman, died in a seaplane accident off Block Island. The sudden loss shattered Bass’s world, and sparked the earliest writings that might, many years later, type the muse of Lightkeeper. When her mom, Jessica, was recognized with pancreatic most cancers 25 years later, Bass responded in a means solely a daughter and visible artist may: by making a residing tribute of images, phrases and neighborhood that might honor her mom’s legacy whereas she was nonetheless alive to really feel it.

What started as private documentation in the end turned a profound memoir. Lightkeeper reveals how grief may be reworked into inventive expression, and the way the act of remembering, particularly via images, may be each a balm and a bridge.

“Photographs aren’t just keepsakes,” Bass says. “They’re portals, gateways into memory, into stories that exist just outside the frame.”

Throughout the e-book, she displays on how photos can maintain emotional resonance far past their composition. A candid smile. A half-seen hand. A light-weight filtering via leaves in a backyard as soon as tended by her mother and father. These visible fragments are greater than data of what was—they’re vessels for love, which means and continuity.

Lightkeeper is crammed with beautiful full-color images and luminous prose. In it, Bass evolves from daughter to archivist to the self-appointed “lightkeeper” of her household’s historical past. As she invitations readers into this intimate and poignant journey, she additionally gives them a mannequin: how one can course of their very own grief, how one can preserve reminiscence alive, and how one can honor what stays.

A couple of of the 60 photos, all collected household images, which might be used within the memoir and that function entry factors or portals into recollections.

In some ways, Bass’s profession has lengthy ready her for this function. From her first solo exhibition in 1988, her positive artwork images has earned approval for its emotional depth and compositional precision. Her work, featured in publications equivalent to Architectural Digest, has graced three solo reveals and develop into a part of quite a few personal and company collections. Her bestselling books, In the Garden (Melcher Media, 2012) and Gardens at First Light (Moffly Media, 2015), celebrated the poetry of place and presence. But Lightkeeper is her most private work but.

Shifting from photos to phrases was each pure and daunting and allowed her to move from photographer to memoirist.

“I’ve always told stories through pictures,” Bass explains. “Writing Lightkeeper felt like learning to speak a new language, one that could capture what even a photograph couldn’t say.”

The memoir isn’t nearly private loss; it’s a meditation on the common expertise of grief. It prompts readers to rethink the images in their very own lives—not simply as recollections, however as emotional anchors. In a world saturated with visible media, Bass argues for a extra intentional, even reverent, relationship with images.

“We’re taking more pictures than ever, but we’re looking at them less,” she says. “Authentic photography isn’t a lost art; it’s just waiting for us to slow down and really see.”

By preserving her mother and father’ tales via phrase and picture, Bass stepped into the function of turning into the “lightkeeper,” the guardian of a legacy solely she may maintain. She invitations readers to develop into lightkeepers in their very own households: to gather, protect and share, not solely what’s seen, however what’s felt.

“It’s not just about remembering,” she displays. “It’s about illuminating—making sure the light of those we’ve lost still shines forward.”

With Lightkeeper, Bass has created one thing uncommon: a memoir that’s deeply private but universally resonant, intimate but extensively instructive. For anybody navigating the terrain of grief, it gives not solely solace, however a lens via which to reframe the journey.

More household images which might be used within the memoir.

 

Save the Date

Bass’s launch occasion, on Tuesday, September 16, might be held on the Westport Library, in dialog with Dani Shapiro.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW:
Join photographer Stacy Waldman Bass as she discusses her new memoir, Lightkeeper: A Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss, in her hometown with fellow memoirist and mentor Dani Shapiro. A luminous story of loss and resilience, Lightkeeper captures acclaimed photographer Bass’s private journey via grief—and the artwork of conserving her mother and father’ legacy alive via reminiscence and images.

There might be a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m., with the e-book launch and dialog beginning at 7 p.m. Copies of Lightkeeper might be obtainable on the market and signing on the occasion.

DETAILS
Date: Tue, September 16
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Cost: Free – $30
Venue: The Westport Library
20 Jesup Road, Westport,CT

Lightkeeper: A Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss is on the market September 16 from Simon & Schuster and on Audible.

 

Bass’s Fine Art Photography

above: “Black Sand, White Water 3” and “Eclipse 1.”

Stacy Bass’s positive artwork images is at present represented by Swoon Gallery.
9 Sconset Square Westport CT
203-557-0997