Franke was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1938 but spent her childhood in England and the United States. She began work as a photographer in 1963 in China, Japan and India. In 1965, she became a freelancer, working on portraits of artists, writers and, above all, on humanitarian and feminist reportage. She has published numerous books and is president of the Cartier-Bresson Foundation. She is the life-long official photographer of the Théâtre du Soleil from its founding in 1964 until today. In 1983 she joined the Magnum agency.
Kalvar was born in New York City in 1944. After his studies at Cornell University, he worked as the assistant of French fashion photographer, Jérôme Ducrot. In 1966 during a long trip to Europe with his camera in tow, he decided to take up photography as a full-time profession. In 1972, he co-founded Viva photo agency in Paris, and in 1977, he became a member of the elite club of Magnum photographers, where he would later become vice-president and president. Kalvar has gone on assignments in France, Italy, England, Japan and the United States as a photo researcher, journalist, and commercial photographer. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. In 2007, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie held a major exhibition in his honor, showcasing his photographic work and his published photo book, Earthlings.
In the 2001 edition, stories of life and friendship alternate around a cup of coffee, viewed through the introspective lenses of two of the Magnum agency’s greatest photojournalists: Martine Franck and Richard Kalvar. Franck was born in Belgium in 1938. In 1965, she became a freelancer, working on portraits of artists, writers and, above all, on humanitarian reportage. Kalvar was born in New York in 1944. After a long trip around Europe, he embarked on a career as a photographer specialising in scenes of daily urban life.