Martine Franck (signed)

Published by Phaidon, March 2007. The influential Magnum photographer Martine Franck (b. 1938) is one of the few women photojournalists to have achieved true international recognition. This book documents Franck's work through a chronologically presented sequence of 55 images, featuring her best-known projects, which focus on those living on the margins of society or in isolated communities, including Tibetan lamas, Gaelic-speaking Irish communities and the elderly. Forming the most accessible introduction to Franck's work available, this book includes her early work documenting carnivals and street festivals in Provence and more recent projects photographing circus performers and dancers in Russia. Franck's work brings an aesthetic purity and feminine sensibility to the humanist Magnum philosophy, as seen in her sensitive portraits of the exuberance of childhood and in her compassionate images of her contemporaries from the art world, such as Paul Strand, Marc Chagall, and Balthus. An introductory essay by Louise Baring assesses Franck's contribution to the history of photography and picture-by-picture commentary offers insight into the individual works.