Diane Martel, the prolific music video director who helped visually define the work of megastars like Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey, and who stood out as a woman in a field dominated by men, died on Thursday. She was 63.
Her aunt Gail Merrifield Papp said she died of breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Unafraid to push the boundaries in an especially inventive medium, Ms. Martel was for decades among the most sought-after video directors in the music industry. She directed videos for a broad and eclectic group of big-name artists, including The 1975, Franz Ferdinand, Method Man, the White Stripes, Mobb Deep, Jennifer Lopez and Avril Lavigne.
Ms. Martel frequently collaborated with the pop star Miley Cyrus, directing her “Younger Now” and “Malibu” videos, both in 2017, and serving as the creative director for Ms. Cyrus’s “Bangerz” tour in 2014.
In a phone interview on Saturday, Ms. Papp described her niece as “self-invented,” having forged her own path as a video director after dropping out of high school.
“She has a permanent legacy, which she pioneered, starting with her early days of music videos,” Ms. Papp said, adding that she had initially experimented with the medium in her bedroom.
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The post Diane Martel, Inventive Director of Music Videos, Dies at 63 appeared first on New York Times.
