Donna Bassin, Ph.D. is a fine art photographer, clinical psychologist/psychoanalyst, published author, and award-winning documentary filmmaker who examines what is hidden within.

She specializes in loss, grief, and mourning, and teaches “Mourning as Transformation: The Creative Edge of Traumatic and Ordinary Loss” at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.

Her photographs have been featured in exhibitions on both coasts, including galleries and museums, and are part of several private collections.

Education

PRATT Institute

International Center of Photography

Professional Affiliations

New Jersey Combat Paper Project and Frontline Arts

Assistant Professor of Art Therapy, PRATT Institute

Film and Video

2016 - 2015 The Mourning After, Documentary, PEP Video

2014 Leave No Soldier (edited), Documentary.

Director and Producer. (R.T 53 minutes)

2008 Leave No Soldier, Documentary. Director and Producer. ShrinkWrap

Productions. (R.T 83 minutes) Screenings include:

Film Festivals (See awards), The International Federation For

Psychoanalytic Education, The Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational

Psychoanalysis in conjunction with the Creative Arts Therapy Graduate Program

at Pratt Institute, The American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical

Social Work National Conference, The Massachusetts Institute for

Psychoanalysis, The American Psychological Association Division 39 Spring

Conference, IARPP International Conference in Tel Aviv and The Chicago

Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology

2004 Dollhouse, Recipient of Experimental Television Center Finishing Fund Grant

2003 Dollumentary: The Origins of Dolls, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

1978 Buddy and the Monster: A Children’s Orientation to Psychiatric Hospitalization

Solo Exhibitions

2004 Playing Around, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ

Memories: Ascending/Descending, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

2003 The Afterlife of Dolls, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

Group Exhibitions

2019 State of the Art 2019, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ

Contemporary Portraiture: To See Each Other, Passaic County Arts Center, Hawthorne, NJ

ViewPoints 2019, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ

2018 Armistice Day 2018, Puffin Cultural Forum – Frontline Arts, Teaneck, NJ

Call & Response: The Art of Listening, 1978 Maplewood Arts Center, Maplewood, NJ

Natural Encounters, N.Y. Photo Curator – Global Photography Awards

Viewpoints 2018, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ

2017 Art Connections 13, George Segal Gallery, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ

Street Photography, Blank Wall Gallery, Athens, Greece

2016 Trois Poissons in a Big See, Sterling Sound, New York, NY

Viewpoints 2016, Aljira: a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ

Art Connections 12, George Segal Gallery, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ

2015 Mirrors of the Mind 4: The Psychotherapist as Artist, Art Share LA, Los Angeles, CA

2008 The Spontaneous Gesture Realized, The Rubelle and Norman Shafler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2007 Shame, Redsaw Gallery, Newark, NJ

2006 Oh You Beautiful Doll, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY

2005 Exposed, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ

Truth, Gallery 214, Montclair, New Jersey

Almost Human: Dolls and Robots in Contemporary Art, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ

2003 Three Twins, The Arts Guild of Rahway, Rahway, NJ

Time, Light, Space, New Century Artist, New York, NY

ArtSpace, Montclair, NJ

Stebbins Gallery, Cambridge, MA

2002 Into the Light, Photo District Gallery, New York, NY

Awards and Grants

2018 Honorable Mention for Segregation and Human Rights in the 12th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Photography Gala Awards

2017 NAAP Gradiva Award for “The Mourning After”

2014 Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, Video Grant for “The Mourning After”

2008 Leave No Soldier, Director/Producer. Documentary. Official Selection of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, The Big Muddy,

New Filmmakers Festival, Best Director at the First Glance Film Festival and Merit award at the Accolade Film Festival

2007 The American Psychological Association, Division 39 Section IX Achievement Award

2005 The National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, Gradiva Award for Artwork Contributions to Psychoanalysis

2004 New Jersey Council of the Arts Featured Artist of the Month: January

Pratt Institute, Development Grant

Roy W. Dean Film & Video Grant: Finalist, “The Mourning After”

Experimental Television Center Ltd., Finishing Funds for “Dollhouse”

2003 Mental Health Association in New Jersey, Gold Bell Leadership Award for Contributions to Mental Health Through the Arts Catalogues

and Publications

Selected Lectures

2015 The Emerging Veterans Art Movement, NYU, New York, NY

2007 Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY

2005 Images of Memorial Activity, Memory, Memorials and Collective Working Through Conference. New York Freudian Society, New York, NY

2003 The Art of Traumatic Mourning. Third Annual Conference Five New York Societies of the International Psychoanalytic Association

2000 Pratt Institute Development Grant, Pratt Institute, New York, NY

Book and Magazine Reproductions

2018 “We the People: Portraits of Resistance and America Reconstructed.” Featured photographs by Donna Bassin from series Here I Am: Portraits of Resistance, Psychoanalytic Review, 105(6), December 2018. Ed. Douglas F. Maxwell.

“Gorillas.8” Featured photograph for ‘So Zoo Me, a photo narrative’ by Mark Blickley in Event Horizon, Issue 5, 2018

“Reflection.5” Cover photograph for Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique (Relational Perspectives Book Series), eds. L. Aron, S. Grand and

J. Slochower, Routledge Press

“Reflection.4” Cover photograph for De-Idealizing Relational Theory: A Critique from Within (Relational Perspectives Book Series),

eds. L. Aron, S. Grand and J. Slochower, Routledge Press

2014 “Hand” Cover photograph for Holding and Psychoanalysis second edition, J. Slochower, Routledge Press

2013 “Waves” Cover photograph for Psychoanalytic Collisions, second edition, J. Slochower, Routledge Press

2005 “Inside Dolly: A Still Live Revisited.” Almost Human: Dolls and Robots in Contemporary Art. Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ

2004 “The Afterlife of Dolls.” Catalogue by Mary Birmingham. The Montclair Museum of Art, Montclair, NJ

2002 “Listening to Laurie”, Cover photograph for Being and Doing: Essays on Gender, ed. D. Franco, Ph.D., Mental Health Resources

Selected Interviews

2015 "Fog of War", State of the Arts, NJN TV

2005 “Childhood”, State of the Arts. NJN Public Television. Featured Artist

2003 “Therapist’s Imagery: Psychoanalyst Uses Dolls to Explore Relationships.” The Star Ledger, December 5, 2003

2002 “Review of Donna Bassin’s Work.” The Montclair Times. Montclair, NJ

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