Martine Franck (Belgian, 1938-2012)

Martine Franck was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and grew up in the US and UK. She studied Art History at both the University of Madrid and at the École du Louvre in Paris, where she wrote her thesis on "the influence of Cubism on sculpture". In 1964 she started working at Time-Life in Paris as assistant to the photographers Eliot Elisofon and Gjon Mili. She subsequently worked as an independent photographer for publications such as Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and Vogue. Franck joined the Vu Photo Agency in 1970, and later co-founded the Viva agency in 1972. In 1983 she undertook work for the French Ministry for Women's Rights and in that same year became a full member of Magnum Photos. In 1993, she travelled to Tory Island, off the northwest coast of Ireland, where she documented the daily life of a traditional Gaelic-speaking community. Later projects include photographing Buddhist Tibetan children in India and Nepal. 

Image on the right: Martine Franck, 1972 ©Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos

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