18 Facts About Martine Franck

Martine Franck was a British-Belgian documentary and portrait photographer.

Martine Franck was a member of Magnum Photos for over 32 years.

Martine Franck was born in Antwerp to the Belgian banker Louis Martine Franck and his British wife, Evelyn.

Martine Franck's father was an amateur art collector who often took his daughter to galleries and museums.

Martine Franck was in boarding school from the age of six onwards, and her mother sent her a postcard every day, frequently of paintings.

Martine Franck, attended Heathfield School, an all-girls boarding school close to Ascot in England, and studied the history of art from the age of 14.

Martine Franck studied art history at the University of Madrid and at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris.

In 1980, Martine Franck joined the Magnum Photos cooperative agency as a "nominee", and in 1983 she became a full member.

Martine Franck was one of a very small number of women to be accepted into the agency.

Martine Franck traveled to Tibet and Nepal, and with the help of Marilyn Silverstone photographed the education system of the Tibetan Tulkus monks.

Nine books of Martine Franck's photographs have been published, and in 2005 Martine Franck was made a chevalier of the French Legion d'Honneur.

Martine Franck continued working even after she was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2010.

Martine Franck was well known for her documentary-style photographs of important cultural figures such as the painter Marc Chagall, philosopher Michel Foucault and poet Seamus Heaney, and of remote or marginalized communities such as Tibetan Buddhist monks, elderly French people, and isolated Gaelic speakers.

Martine Franck quickly closed the lens just at the right moment, when happened to be most intense.

Martine Franck cited as influences the portraits of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, the work of American photojournalist Dorothea Lange and American documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

Martine Franck worked outside the studio, using a 35 mm Leica camera, and preferring black and white film.

Martine Franck once said that she put her husband's career ahead of her own.

Martine Franck was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and died in Paris in 2012 at 74 years old.