The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck. The Fondation holds all the prints, film negatives, contact sheets and documents bequeathed by the two photographers.

Created in 2025, the Martine Franck Curatorial Research Grant aims to help researchers and curators develop a research and exhibition project on the work of Martine Franck and/or Henri Cartier-Bresson, working from the Foundation’s archives.

Awarded every two years, the Grant provides the recipient—selected from a new international generation of scholars—with ideal conditions to carry out their research, and contributes to renewing curatorial approaches on the work of the two photographers by supporting original and contemporary perspectives.

The Martine Franck Curatorial Research Grant is supported by the Linklaters Foundation.

FUNCTIONING AND GRANT

Selected upon application by a jury of five professionals from the worlds of research and curatorial practice, the recipient of the Martine Franck Curatorial Research Grant receives an allocation of €7,000 to curate an exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and conceive a publication.

The recipient also benefits from facilitated access to the Foundation’s archives, research support and mentoring for curatorial work.

At the end of the research year, the exhibition is presented to the public at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in “the Tube” (80 m2). The book is published in collaboration with a publishing house.

The grant is intended to cover research and curatorial work, the production of material for the exhibition and the book, supervision of the book’s production, as well as any travel and accommodation expenses.

The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson is responsible for the exhibition’s production costs and, in partnership with a publisher, for the catalog’s publication costs.

ELIGIBILITY

The Martine Franck Curatorial Research Grant is open to researchers of any nationality who are enrolled in or have completed a doctoral program, and to curators who are enrolled in or have completed a graduate program. Candidates must be able to demonstrate research, publication or curatorial experience. Candidates must be referred by a research or curatorial professional.

COMMITMENTS

The recipient agrees to exhibit his or her project at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in the fall of 2026, and to carry out the research and curatorial work. He/she agrees to oversee the completion of the publication. He/she agrees to produce texts for the exhibition and the book.