Stuart Franklin (born 16 June 1956Biography
''National Geographic''.) is a British

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

. He is a member of

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in Paris, New York City, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David Seymour (photographer), Davi ...

and was its President from 2006 to 2009.Stuart Franklin
Magnum Photos.

Early life and education

Franklin was born on 16 June 1956 at Guy's Hospital in London. He studied drawing under Leonard McComb in Oxford and Whitechapel, London, and from 1976 to 1979 photography at

West Surrey College of Art and Design Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College (SIAD) was an Art school, art college in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2005. It was formed from the merger of West Surrey College of Art and Design (1969–1995) and Epsom School of Art and ...

, where he graduated with a BA. Moreover, between 1995 and 1997, he studied geography at the University of Oxford, first receiving a BA and the Gibbs Prize for geography. He received a doctorate in Geography from the University of Oxford in 2000. Franklin was awarded a professorship in documentary photography in 2016. He taught photography and visual storytelling at Volda University College, Norway until July 2021. He is currently an affiliate professor at the University of Malta.

Career

From 1980 until 1985, Franklin worked with Sygma in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. During that time he photographed the civil war in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, unemployment in Britain, famine in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and the

Heysel Stadium disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( ; ; ) was a crowd disaster on 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of ...

. Joining Magnum Photos in 1985, he became a full member in 1989. In the same year, Franklin photographed the uprising in

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square () is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen ("''Gate of Heavenly Peace''") located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains th ...

and shot one of the

Tank Man The Tank Man (also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname given to an unidentified individual, presumed to be a Chinese man, who stood in front of a column of Type 59 tanks leaving Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June ...

photographs, first published in ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine, as well as widely documenting the uprising in Beijing earning him a

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization holds the annual World Press Photo Contest for press photography. Since 2011, World Press Photo has orga ...

Award. In 1989 Franklin traveled with

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. He worked on about twenty stories for ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'' between 1991 and 2009, subjects including

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

conqueror

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...

and the hydro-struggle in Quebec and places such as

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. In addition, he worked on book and cultural projects. In October 2008, his book ''Footprint: Our Landscape in Flux'' was published by Thames & Hudson. An ominous photographic document of Europe’s changing landscape, it highlights Franklin's ecological concern. During 2009 Franklin curated an exhibition on Gaza - ''Point of No Return'' for the Noorderlicht Photo Festival. Since 2009 he has focused on a long term landscape project in Norway published as ''Narcissus'' in 2013. More recently he has worked on documentary projects on doctors working in Syria, and immigration in Calais. Franklin's most recent book, ''The Documentary Impulse'' was published by Phaidon in April 2016. It investigates the nature of truth in reporting and the drive towards self-representation beginning 50,000 years ago with cave art through to the various iterations and impulses that have guided documentary photography along its differing tracks for nearly 200 years. Franklin was the general chair of the World Press Photo jury 2017. Franklin is currently working on a long term photographic essay in Malta and Southern Europe.

Awards

* Christian Aid Award for Humanitarian Photography, 1985 * Tom Hopkinson Award, 1987 * Third prize stories, Spot News,

Award, 1990 *

Pictures of the Year International Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalism, visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an a ...

Award, 1990 * Gibbs Prize for geography, University of Oxford, 1997 * Honorary Fellowship of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

, 2003 * Feature of the Year,

Medical Journalists' Association The Medical Journalists' Association (abbreviated MJA) is a professional association for medical journalists in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1967 and held its first meeting on 1 February of that year in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a fam ...

, 2021. Cover story on coronavirus in a London hospital for The Sunday Times magazine: Eye of the Storm.

Books

*''Tiananmen Square''. London: Black Sun, 1989. *''The Time of Trees''. Milan: Leonardo Arte, 1999. . *''Alberi / Trees''. Milan: Fondazione Nicola Trussardi / Charta, 2002. . *''La Città Dinamica''. Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2003. . *''Sea Fever''. Oxford: Bardwell, 2005. . *''Hotel Afrique''. Stockport:

Dewi Lewis Dewi Lewis (born Denbigh, Wales, 10 March 1951) is a publisher and curator of photography. Career In 1975, Lewis was the founding director of the Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury Metropolitan Arts Association which operates The Met (arts centre), ...

, 2007. *''Footprint: Our Landscape in Flux''. London:

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 2008. . *''St Petersburg''. St Petersburg: Perlov Design Center, 2012. *''Narcissus''. Ostfildern:

Hatje Cantz Hatje Cantz Verlag (English: Hatje Cantz Publishing) is a German book publisher specialising in photography, art, architecture and design. It was established in 1945 by Gerd Hatje Phaidon Phaidon is an ancient Greek name that may refer to: *Phaedo of Elis, philosopher *''Phaedo'', one of Plato's dialogues named after Phaedo of Elis who appears in it *Phaidon Press, a publisher *'' Phaidon Design Classics'', a 2006 British three volum ...

, 2016. *''Analogies''. Berlin:

, 2023.

References

External links

Personal Web siteInterview for Italian Photography Magazine Maledetti Fotografi.
* ttp://digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm25.html Tiananmen Square photo and description {{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Stuart 1956 births Living people English photojournalists Photographers from the London Borough of Southwark Magnum photographers