Françoise Demulder
Françoise Demulder (9 June 1947 – 3 September 2008) was a French war photographer who in 1977 became the first woman to win the World Press Photo of the Year award. The winning image was a black and white photo of a Palestinian woman raising her hands at a masked militiaman in Beirut's war-ravaged La Quarantaine district.
Françoise Demulder

Hans Peters for Anefo · Nationaal Archief · CC0
- Name
- Françoise Demulder
- Born
- 9 June 1947
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Died
- 3 September 2008
- Field
- Photography
- Awards
- World Press Photo of the Year (1977)
- Full name
- Françoise Annie Demulder.
- Nationality
- France.
- Occupation
- photojournalist, photographer and journalist.
- Fields
- photography.
- Honours
- World Press Photo of the Year.
- Languages
- French.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Françoise Demulder (9 June 1947 – 3 September 2008) was a French war photographer who in 1977 became the first woman to win the World Press Photo of the Year award. The winning image was a black and white photo of a Palestinian woman raising her hands at a masked militiaman in Beirut's war-ravaged La Quarantaine district.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q2632196 · wikipedia · Françoise Demulder
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Françoise Demulder • Born — 9 June 1947 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 3 September 2008 • Place of death — Paris, France • Field — Photography • Awards — World Press Photo of the Year (1977)
Early life
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
Career
After covering the Vietnam War for three years, the self-made adventurer traveled to other places of crisis in the world including Angola, Lebanon, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Cuba. She often traveled to the Middle East where she saw many mistakes in the reports about Yasser Arafat, who Demulder had ties to through friendship. She also followed the Iran–Iraq War. Then, at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf-War, she was one of only a few journalists present in Baghdad when the city was bombed. She worked for the press agencies Gamma 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 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 Beirut on 18 January 1976, depicts a Palestinian woman imploring a Phalange militant in front of a house engulfed in flames, during the massacre of the Karantina (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
Death
Demulder died on 3 September 2008, age 61, having suffered a heart attack at a hospital in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. Cancer had left her paraplegic in 2003.
Identity
Identity
Françoise Demulder is recorded with the occupation photojournalist. Recorded as photojournalist, photographer and journalist. Recorded at birth as Françoise Annie Demulder.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1947
Françoise Demulder was born in 1947 at 20th arrondissement of Paris.
2008
Françoise Demulder died in 2008 at Levallois-Perret.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
20th arrondissement of Paris.
Birth place
Levallois-Perret.
Death place
Collections
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
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Françoise Demulder”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2632196: Françoise Demulder
Unverified · Wikidata
Awards
• 1977, World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo, Amsterdam, for her photo of the Karantina massacre
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Relevé des fichiers de l'Insee
- 2.Marion Paoli. Demulder,Françoise (dite Fifi) [Paris 1947 - Levallois-Perret 2008]. Dictionnaire universel des créatrices. Béatrice Didier, Antoinette Fouque et Mireille Calle-Gruber (dir.). Éditions Des femmes. 2013. 1207-1208.
- 3.Françoise Demulder, photographe. Michel Guerrin. Claire Guillot. Le Monde. septembre. 2008.
- 4.Prises de vie. Libération. Jean-Pierre Perrin. 10. septembre. 2008.
- 5.Un massacre pouvait en cacher un autre au Liban en 1976. Le Monde. Jean-Pierre Filiu. 28. août. 2022.
- 6.Un massacre pouvait en cacher un autre au Liban en 1976. Le Monde. 2022-08-28. 2025-01-28.
- 7.Une vente au profit de Françoise Demulder. Le Monde. 27. octobre. 2003. Michel Guerrin.
- 8.Françoise Demulder. worldpressphoto.org. 1977.
- 9.Exposition / Femmes photographes de guerre. museeliberation-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr. 8 mars 2022.
- 10.Prix Françoise Demulder Visa pour l’image
- 11.Communiqué de presse - Nanna Heitmann et Adrienne Surprenant lauréates du Prix Françoise Demulder 2022 pour les femmes photojournalistes ministère de la Culture
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedauthority record
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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