Above all I look for inner silence. I seek to translate personality and not an expression,’ said Henri Cartier-Bresson co-founder of Magnum photos and husband of Martine Franck. It isn’t surprising that we find a comparable silence in her portraits as well; a similar tendency to be preoccupied with intimacy while remaining unobtrusive. But while comparisons are inevitable, her work shouldn’t be viewed as merely imitative.

Art Musings in conjunction with Tasveer and Mattheiu Foss has brought Franck’s works to Mumbai. The quaint gallery at the end of Colaba does justice to Franck’s works that often tend to focus on people at the fringe of society. One of a handful of women to be inducted into Magnum’s elite, she stands by its meticulous process of admittance and is averse to digital enhancement having remained notoriously faithful to her Leica camera for over 35 years.

While the exhibit does include a series of monasteries across India and Tibet that have a distinct photojournalistic look, it’s the photographs that capture a feeling or sense of her subject that appear truly distinctive. The innate curiosity of children, lined up along the banister of a spiral staircase and peering down having their interests piqued by the curious photographer in Camart, France or the playful innocence of youth in the picture of two girls holding hands and jumping off a wall in Tory Island, Ireland are the images that can’t easily be forgotten.

One of her most striking works seizes a moment at a poolside in Le Brusc, Provence. As the figure in the foreground reclines on a hammock, another lies supine in the distance sunbathing, while to her right another is seen bent over, stretching. The duality of the hammock and its shadow, the decorative balls, the curve of the terrace and the embankment rising up make the image unique and reiterate the importance of composition.

Franck’s dual standpoint possibly stems from the dichotomy she experiences in the distinct worlds that she photographs and the ones she inhabits. Largely concerned with capturing a fleeting moment, Franck’s achievement lies in her seemingly intuitive compositional ability. Whether it’s fashionable images like the one by the poolside, charming countryside vignettes or her more pensive portraits, Franck has an unparalleled eye for telling stories and capturing emotions.