Ageing, Care and (In)visibility: Photography of Martine Franck
How Martine Franck's work impacts our understanding of later life experiences and inequality.
About the Research Project
This project examines the study of ageing undertaken by Magnum photographer Martine Franck (1938-2012). Martine Frank is an unrecognised landmark for Age Studies. The project shows how Franck’s photographs provide a powerful insight into older people’s:
- lives
- embodied identities
- physical environments
It also argues that her work anticipates the development of cultural gerontology. We also ask important questions about photographic practice as a form of care.
The project explores the following questions:
- What is the value of Franck’s photography within Ageing Studies?
- How can photographic representations influence social and cultural imaginaries of growing old?
- What does Franck’s work on ageing tell us about the evolution of gerontology and the conditions of visibility for older persons in the French context?
- How does a feminist care theory lens invite us to evaluate Franck’s work on ageing?
- How might Franck’s creative practice be understood as care?
- What can be gained, in the understanding of Franck’s work and Simone de Beauvoir’s legacy, by interpreting Franck’s project in the light of Beauvoir’s seminal theoretical work on ageing, ‘La Vieillesse’?
Further Information
Funder: Leverhulme Trust – Research Fellowship
Duration: 12 months (1 April 2022–31 March 2023)
PI: Prof Shirley Jordan, Newcastle University
Bibliography: Shirley Jordan, ‘Ageing and Care in the Visual Field: The Photography of Martine Franck’, in Sarah Falcus and Katsura Sako (eds), Contemporary Narratives of Ageing, Illness, Care (London: Routledge, 2022), pp. 10-30