Françoise Demulder (9 June 1947 – 3 September 2008) was a French

war photographer War photography involves photographing armed conflict and its effects on people and places. Photographers who participate in this genre may find themselves placed in harm's way, and are sometimes killed trying to get their pictures out of the war ...

who in 1977 became the first woman to win the

World Press Photo of the Year The World Press Photo of the Year award is part of the World Press Photo Awards, organized by the Dutch foundation World Press Photo. Considered one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in photojournalism, the World Press Photo of the Ye ...

award. The winning image was a black and white photo of a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

woman raising her hands at a masked militiaman in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

's war-ravaged La Quarantaine district.

Early life

Born on 9 June 1947, Demulder, nicknamed Fifi, was the daughter of an electrical engineer. She was at first a model before she followed a photographer to Vietnam. It was this adventure of love that began her career as a wartime photographer.

Career

After covering the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

for three years, the self-made adventurer traveled to other places of crisis in the world including

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

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 ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. She often traveled to the Middle East where she saw many mistakes in the reports about

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

, who Demulder had ties to through friendship. She also followed the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. Then, at the beginning of the 1991

Gulf-War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, she was one of only a few journalists present in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

when the city was bombed. She worked for the press agencies

Gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

and Sipa Press, and for the publications ''Time,'' ''Life,'' and ''Newsweek.'' She is known for two particular photos which she took. The first captures a symbolic instance where a North Vietnam tank smashes the gate at the

Independence Palace The Independence Palace (), also publicly and officially known as the Reunification Convention Hall or simply Reunification Hall (), is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngô Vi� ...

in Saigon, during the taking of the city on 30 April 1975. The second made her, in 1977, the first female winner of the World Press Photo. Designated as the best shot of the year, this image in black and white, captured in

on 18 January 1976, depicts a

woman imploring a

Phalange The phalanges (: phalanx ) are digital bones in the hands and feet of most vertebrates. In primates, the thumbs and big toes have two phalanges while the other digits have three phalanges. The phalanges are classed as long bones. Structure ...

militant in front of a house engulfed in flames, during the

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

of the

Karantina La Quarantaine, which is colloquially referred to as Karantina () and sometimes spelled Quarantina, is a predominantly low-income, mixed-use residential, commercial, and semi-industrial neighborhood in northeastern Beirut. The neighborhood lies e ...

(Quarantaine) neighborhood of East Beirut. On 29 October 2003, a sale of solidarity gathered together 300 prints by international photographers. The sale was organized by Gallery Vu' of Paris, and reported a sum of €171,000 destined to come to the aid of a French photojournalist who was very sick and without social security. In the auction, the photo by Demulder that had won the World Press Photo contest, sold for €11,000 to Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

Death

Demulder died on 3 September 2008, age 61, having suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at a hospital in the

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 ...

suburb of

Levallois-Perret Levallois-Perret () is a Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department and Île-de-France Regions of France, region of north-central France. It lies on the right bank of the Seine, some from the Kilometre z ...

. Cancer had left her paraplegic in 2003.

Awards

*1977,

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 ...

, Amsterdam, for her photo of the

Karantina massacre The Karantina massacre (; ) took place on January 18, 1976, early in the Lebanese Civil War. Karantina, La Quarantine, known in Arabic as Karantina, was a Islam in Lebanon, Muslim-inhabited district in mostly Christianity in Lebanon, Christian ...

Collections

Demulder's work is held in the following public collections: *National Foundation for Contemporary Art *Nicéphore-Niepce Museum of Chalon-sur-Saône * Agence Roger-Viollet

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demulder, Francoise 1947 births 2008 deaths 20th-century French women photographers 20th-century French photographers