Tulkukhentrol With Tutor, Nepal

1996

Martine Franck was born in Antwerp and raised in England and the United States. Franck studied art history at the University of Madrid and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. Shortly afterward she launched her photographic career by assisting photographer Eliot Elisofson and Gjon Milli at Time-Life. Franck associated with several photographic agencies during her career including the Vu agency, which she joined at its start in 1970 and the Viva agency of which she was one of the founders. In 1980 Franck was one of four women to become a member of the forty-four member Magnum photo agency of which her husband Henri Cartier-Bresson was a founding member. All of these associations have helped to shape her style of humanitarian reportage. In the foreword to her book One Day to the Next, Martine Franck corresponds with art critic John Berger on photography. Franck writes, "What I like about photography is precisely the moment that cannot be anticipated, one must constantly be on the alert ready to acclaim the unexpected." This sentiment adequately captures the motivating spirit behind Franck's images. From her portraits of writers and artists to images of children at play, there is a quality of unexpected delight that is present in all of her photographs. Franck's images are graphically strong as in the case of a row of trees sheltering the tiny walkway below as well as her contrasty image of bathers at a modern style swimming pool.