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The Road Less Traveled

Owen Franken '68 relaxes in Tuscany

By Dave Enders

The French have a word that aptly sums up alumnus Owen Franken's career: imprévisible (literally, unforeseeable). To many, unforeseeability might be a source of anxiety. To Franken, it's freedom.

It is not surprising then that Franken '68 enjoys an unusual profession for an MIT grad: photojournalism. Franken's career has taken him to 103 countries, allowing him to taste the best (and sometimes the worst) of what the world has to offer and get paid for it. "I've always relished freedom and never worried about financial security," Franken says from his home in Paris, where he juggles his roles as a food and travel photographer, a husband and father of two, a gourmet chef, and the older brother of comedian and political satirist Al Franken.

Franken's road less traveled was nearly not taken. For his senior thesis at MIT, he assisted a grad student studying the "circular polarization of 53.6 degrees KeV x-rays from Virgo A," which raised a few alarms about his future career as a physicist. Adding to Franken's frustration were a series of job interviews in which it became clear that much of the work of physicists in 1968 was related to war research.

Son Tunui Eye-to-Eye with a Snail

As a kid, Franken picked up photography from his father and fell in love with it. He did the photography for his high-school yearbook and continued his avocation at MIT, shooting pictures for the MIT News office and Technology Review. He was also photo editor for the Technique. His first paid assignment was photographing sculptor Alexander Calder constructing the Great Sail on the MIT campus. He particularly remembers the advice of his humanities professor, John Graves, who said, "Don't do what you think you should do....do what you want to do." That chance soon came.

While protesting the Vietnam War, Franken volunteered for Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign and, naturally, took a lot of photographs. Those pictures caught the eye of a writer from Life magazine who introduced him to McCarthy's press secretary, Seymour Hersh, who asked Franken to document the campaign. The McCarthy campaign became Franken's new senior thesis.

"I loved observing the world and photographing it," says Franken. He decided against graduate school and hit the road as a professional photographer. Four years later, his brother graduated cum laude from Harvard and immediately headed to L.A. to try his hand at standup comedy. One can only imagine the parental handwringing back home.

Beruit: training at a Palestinian refugee camp

Franken left news photography after covering the overthrow of Ceaucescu in Romania. "I remember driving film to an airport in Belgrade on the day after Christmas. I was in a rented VW that had all its windows blown out by sniper fire." It was then that he realized there were probably safer subjects to photograph.

He traveled to Paris in 1988 and "stayed for the oysters." He began to focus his photography career on the food and travel industries. He would soon meet his Dutch wife, Annemiek (a psychologist and a special education teacher, focused on autism), while standing in line at an ATM in Paris. Wife and kids often accompany him on exotic assignments around the world. In the past ten years, he has shared roast dog in Vietnam with son Tunui and sampled "wild cat" in Burma and giant spiders and scorpions in Bangkok with daughter Manui.

Photographing food as a deeply human experience is Franken's art form today. He has completed two illustrated books, Escape to Provence and Escape to the Riviera for Fodors. Long-term projects in development include a book on Asian street foods.

Franken's reputation as a photographer has led to a legacy of stock photos licensed through his current agencies, Corbis and Stock Boston. His brother's fame began at Saturday Night Live, but gained a tremendous following when he turned to political satire, and lately the radio.

"This year, because of his show on Air America Radio, everybody has been asking me for photographs of him," says Franken who accompanied Al last Christmas on a USO tour of the Middle East and was hired to photograph it. He plans to repeat the experience this year.

An Afghanistan holding area of workers for the US military on the Baghram Air Base.

"He's five years younger than I am and always has been," Owen says, displaying a distinct family proclivity for the deadpan line. Asked about any sibling rivalry, Owen laughs and points to the Harvard-MIT connection. "I tease him that there are more Harvard comedians than MIT photographers." Franken playfully uses the French term "recompense" to describe his brother's Harvard experience. "The fact that you are able to get into Harvard means the hard work is over, which is certainly not the case at MIT. MIT makes you prove you're worthy of getting there...and staying there."

"It has been interesting having my brother as my brother," Franken continues. During a live conversation in August on Air America, the two got emotional talking about the current war. "I told him, 'I really love you for what you're doing.'"

What's next for Owen Franken is unforeseeable. He would like to be back in the U.S. with his brother for the November election. Beyond that...he is open to all possibilities.

Learn more about Owen Franken at http://www.owenfranken.com/