{"id":655535,"date":"2026-10-24T07:02:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655535\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T07:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:02:28","slug":"tree-week-donna-bassin-portraits-of-a-precarious-earth-ancient-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655535\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Week: Donna Bassin: Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Mukunoki, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

There is something humbling about standing in front of a tree that has been alive for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. But there is also something humbling about standing in a forest in Japan and seeing Donna Bassin<\/a>\u2018s portraits of trees printed set amoungst those trees, on large canvases during the Karuizawa Foto Festival<\/a>. We often think of trees as permanent fixtures in the landscape, but they are not. They are living, vulnerable beings, subject to the same changing world that surrounds us. Bassin\u2019s work is a gentle reminder to honor these ancient structures.<\/p>\n

In Ancient Trees, the artist approaches these remarkable trees as portraits, taking the time to look closely at their particular histories, histories of knots, wounds, roots, and marks left by weather and time. Inspired by the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, she stitches embroidery thread into the photographs, creating small acts of intervention that resemble both repair and attention. The stitches don\u2019t attempt to fix what has been damaged; instead, they make the wounds more visible. There is a tenderness in these photographs, but also a sense of urgency. These trees have survived for generations, yet their futures are increasingly uncertain. To spend time looking at them is to consider not only what they have endured, but what we might lose.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Camphor, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

Ancient Trees is a subseries of my ongoing project, Portraits of a Precarious Earth. Inspired by Japan\u2019s landscapes, the work examines the climate crisis and its effects on the natural world, social justice, and mental health. Across the larger project, I explore injury, damage, loss, grief, resilience, and repair through personal and collective experience. Here, I treat the trees as portraits, staying with each one long enough to notice the marks of its life and the presence it holds in the landscape.<\/p>\n

The photographs focus on ancient trees with massive trunks, armor-like bark, sculptural roots, and twisted branches. Their scars and knots carry traces of time, weather, and change. In Japan, Shinto practice recognizes the sacred presence of certain trees and places. Yet these beings, like California\u2019s sequoias, face an increasingly precarious future amid environmental degradation. Their age and scale can suggest permanence, but they are living beings, vulnerable to the conditions changing around them.<\/p>\n

Inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold, I sew embroidery thread into the photographs. The stitches become a symbolic gesture of care and repair. They do not conceal the trees\u2019 scars or suggest that damage can simply be undone. Instead, they draw attention to what has been endured and to the care required to remain in relationship with a vulnerable life. These trees are more than witnesses to time. They also help sustain life, storing carbon as they grow over centuries. By photographing them, I hope to invite a closer encounter with their presence and to recognize what is at risk when the living world is treated as distant or inexhaustible.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Camphor, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

Donna Bassin<\/a> is a Brooklyn-born, New Jersey\u2013based photographer, filmmaker, writer, and clinical psychologist whose work draws on decades of experience as a trauma therapist. Through long-term projects, she examines post-traumatic stress, racism, social injustice, moral injury, and environmental destruction, exploring how images can witness rupture while promoting ethical repair. Originally trained in art therapy at Pratt Institute, Bassin later earned a PhD in clinical psychology and pursued psychoanalytic training. Her early work as a handmade clay artist shaped her understanding that trauma leaves marks\u2014on bodies, minds, and the materials we touch and shape. Her photographs reflect those marks: images are burned, torn, sutured, and sometimes reinforced with gold tape, inspired by the Japanese philosophy of kintsugi. These interventions do not conceal damage; they make loss visible, emphasizing that repair begins with acknowledgment.<\/p>\n

Collaboration and community are central to her work. She has worked with military veterans to transform their uniforms into handmade paper, culminating in the installation \u201cBy Our Own Hand\u201d at the Montclair Art Museum. These projects extend her studio practice into collective acts of mourning, testimony, and healing. Bassin has conceived and directed two award-winning documentaries, \u201cLeave No Soldier\u201d and \u201cThe Mourning After.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has exhibited solo shows at museums, including \u201cThe Afterlife of Dolls\u201d at the Montclair Art Museum, \u201cPortraits of the Precarious Earth\u201d at the Newport Art Museum, and \u201cInterwoven: Rupture and Repair\u201d at the Morris Museum. Most recently, The Pictorial Foundation, Marymount Manhattan College\u2019s Hewitt Gallery, and Lenscratch have exhibited her photographs. Her photographs, essays, and interviews have appeared on New Jersey PBS\u2019s State of the Arts, \u201cChildhood,\u201d Rhode Island PBS\u2019s ART, Inc.\u2019s \u201cThe Art of Repair,\u201d and in publications such as The Pictorial List, Tricycle, Lenscratch, Analog Forever, and Overlapse\u2019s \u201cStir the Pot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bassin received a 2024 Puffin Foundation Artist Grant, a 2021 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and was named a Critical Mass Top 50 Photographer and Finalist (2022\u20132024). Her work is held in public and private collections and has been exhibited internationally, including in Japan and Portugal.<\/p>\n

Instagram: \u00a9p1nhole.donnabassin<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Camphor Detail, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Camphor Detail, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Cedar Detail, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Slender Hinoki False Cypress, Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Queensland Kaui Pine, Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Eastern White Pine, Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Black Locust, Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Manchurian Walnut, Portraits of a Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Portraits of the Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees.Mukunoki.Detail<\/p>\n

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\u00a9Donna Bassin, Portraits of the Precarious Earth: Ancient Trees.Mukunoki.Detail<\/p>\n

Posts on Lenscratch may not be reproduced without the permission of the Lenscratch staff and the photographer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9Donna Bassin, Mukunoki, from Portraits of the Precarious Earth \u2013 Ancient Trees There is something humbling about standing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,294815,146,85,46,452],"class_list":["post-655535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-donna-bassin","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-trees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}