About Zander Masser

Zander Masser is the author of the narrative photography book, Unburying My Father. He is also an occupational therapist and a public speaker.

Zander's father, Randy, contracted HIV from using contaminated blood products to treat his bleeding disorder, and died in 2000 from AIDS-related illnesses. Twenty years later, Zander unburied ten thousand slides from Randy's career as a professional photographer, which prompted him to dig deeper into his father's life. What started as an archival photography project evolved into a transformative exploration of living with, and healing from, grief.

Since the release of Unburying My Father, Zander has delivered talks, workshops, and photography exhibits around the US and Canada. He was the recent keynote speaker at the Hemophilia Federation of America’s annual symposium, and has presented at many national and international events. Please see the Press and Events page to learn more about Zander’s activities. Please also see the below descriptions of the different ways that Zander presents his work.

When he’s not working, Zander loves to play music, cook, hike, and most of all spend time with his wife and daughter.

Zander is available for in-person and virtual events. You can contact him by email at zander@randymasserphoto.com

The Talk

Zander's talk is a deep dive into his process of exploring grief through creativity. He shares intimate details of his father’s life as a friend, husband, son, parent and photographer, as told by the people who knew him best. Zander discusses the profound realization that his father's life has had a greater impact on him than his death. Zander also speaks about his father’s silence, his trauma around losing one parent, and his struggle to connect with the other. He takes viewers through the creative processes of collecting, writing and healing, with the goal of helping others to find ways of sharing their own stories. While the content includes aspects of the most challenging parts of life, the talk is also a celebration of an incredibly talented artist and universally loved character named Randy Masser. Audience members always leave with a sense of openness, connection, and permission to be vulnerable.

Zander’s talk is appropriate for a wide array of audiences, including those interested in grief, death education and/or death literacy, the creative arts as a way to heal, chronic and/or terminal illness, mental health, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, and photography.

Testimonials

“Profoundly moving talk with stunning photos.”

“That was amazing and moving and crushing and I am so honoured to have been able to hear your story. You moved me to tears so many times.”

"The most powerful keynote I've ever attended."

The Workshop

Unburying My Grief: A Process For Creating Memorial Art

Drawing on his occupational therapy perspective and experience, Zander has created an interactive workshop in which he guides participants to reconnect with loved ones they have lost, and experience catharsis through collecting and sharing their stories. Zander breaks down his creative process into ten concrete steps, provides examples of each step from his own work, and guides participants to do the same with their own story. While Zander ultimately created his book, each workshop participant creates something different, reflecting their own experience, interests and skills. The workshop can be tailored to be anywhere from a 90-minute session to 6 sessions over the course of 6 weeks.

An online version of the workshop was created and produced by Zander Masser and Madecraft and is available for purchase on LinkedIn Learning. Click here to preview or purchase the course.

The Exhibit

Drawing from Unburying My Father, Zander has created a multimedia exhibition that provides viewers a unique visual experience. It combines Randy’s photos, excerpts from the book and family footage spanning five decades. Zander reconstructs the basement that functioned as Randy's photography studio, and where he would sit with family and friends to display his spectacular photos. Randy’s original slides are presented using a vintage Kodak slide projector and slide carousels. Hearing the click of the button and the advancing slides brings viewers back to a time before the digital age, when we viewed photos - and lived life - a little more slowly and deliberately.