Galina Karasoy - weekly post #6

Martine Franck

Martine Franck was a well-known Belgian documentary and portrait photographer. She was a member of Magnum Photos for over 32 years. She worked outside the studio, using a 35-millimeter Leica camera and black-and-white film. The main subjects of her work are people from different communities and environment. Her works are seemed to be well organized and in the same time spontaneous. Some images create extremely organized patterns of people and still life objects meanwhile some images are combination of right moment capture and entertaining subject matter. Many images have reflected elements in them.

First picture looks to be well arranged around the spiral spin stairs.  There are three stores and from the closest focal point to the furthest more than 30 pairs of curious eyes looking at the photographer. It definitely, posed image because it just not possible to keep all those kids looking at the same place in the same moment. This arrangement of their heads on the stairwell, however, adds weight to the repetition of the twirl. Viewer unconsciously repeats that pattern to “enter the image” and to find the “way out” at the top.

In the second picture Martine had applied not only one reflection of the person she focused on, but she actually seemed to be fooling a viewer – artist had drawn a self portrait that remains realistic features of his face that creates second “reflection”. The closest subject is Martine’s husband, however, he is not in the center of image and camera is not had focused on him (her husband’s back and shoulder) but on his reflection in the mirror. Background (everything behind the window) is leafless trees and cloudy sky that remains late fall early winter slight sadness. It reflects emotion of the main subject as well. He is in his late seventies – withering trees represent his faded youth.

On the third image,photographer had taken perfect angle to connect shade of some tree’s trunk with actual tree on the background. Moreover, the wall with the shade of a tree is lighted just right in the place where it creates certain arch like shape.  Image has taken with great depth of field that’s why foreground and background images are sharpened and in focus. Black and white color of the image increase dramatic light contrast.

In my opinion, Martine’s photographs are impressive way of looking at end of 20^th century through lens.  She could tell us a whole story through every image and every photograph has unique quality to it. Images were taken to preserve the moment to transmit all spectra of emotion like happiness of innocent child, sadness of elder lonely woman or any other subject matter portraying her/his feelings. I think looking through her photographs is almost the same like looking through book of human history. She documented moments that are precious to those people on the image but also she did great amount of work to capture them and carry them through the years to deliver to the modern society.