Martine Franck 1938 - 2012

It is with great sadness that we learn of Martine Franck’s death. The Magnum photographer and Phaidon associate passed away yesterday in Paris; she had been ill for sometime.

Born in Belgium in 1938, she grew up in the US and the UK and was educated in Paris and Madrid.  Franck served first as an assistant to Time Life photographers in Paris, before going onto shoot many artist and writers in the French capital. In later life she turned her lens on less-fortunate outsiders around the globe, documenting Tibetan lamas, Gaelic-speaking Irish communities and Sudanese refugees.

She married Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1970, and became a full Magnum member in 1983. Frank once said that the image she liked best was "the moment that you can't anticipate: you have to be constantly watching for it, ready to welcome the unexpected." Her ability to capture these moments will now be sorely missed.