Photographer Dan Martensen’s Favourite Things

Dan Martensen embodies the vibrant energy of his native New York, a whirlwind of passion for family, friends, music, and the city’s cultural fabric. He brings that same passion to his dual vocations: photography and bagels. He moves quickly, recounting significant moments from his life, including interactions with some of the world’s most famous names.

Martensen made his name as a fashion photographer in America in the 2000s, parking ambitions to make it as an art photographer to work at Milk, a pioneering studio then in New York’s Meatpacking District. “That really opened things up for me.” Over the years, he’s collaborated with esteemed publications like i-D, French Vogue, and Elle.

For the last half decade, though, he’s made London his home. The impetus for his nascent bagel brand It’s, which now has branches in Primrose Hill, Notting Hill, and Soho, was the Covid lockdown when, as Martensen says, “for a freelance photographer, things were a little slow.” Homesickness contributed too. “I was missing New York and wanted a New York bagel” so with the counsel of neighbour and cycling buddy, Caravan coffee’s Chris Ammermann and his baker Jack Ponting, he would conceive a local bagel delivery initiative that proved more popular than anyone envisaged.

The evolution continued with a year-long Sunday pop-up, which captured a loyal clientele, leading to a full-fledged bagel shop. Reflecting on the journey, he told me recently, “Everything since Primrose Hill is stuff they wouldn’t teach you in business school. Psychotic shit. Everything in The Bear—it’s true and worse.”

And yet here he is having brought his little slice of the big apple to the big smoke: still smiling and loving it.

Here are some of Martensen’s most cherished possessions, described in his own words.

Filson bag

Dan Martensen: It was around 2007 and I’d just started working as a photographer — or, rather, making an actual living. I’d been shooting for about a year when I found myself in Portland, Oregon, and I decided to buy this bag. I’d had hand-me-downs until this point, so I decided to buy myself a nice ‘day bag’, something I could use for two or three days travel. It was a significant purchase at the time — around £400. But it’s now almost 20 years old — Filson makes incredibly durable stuff.

Leica M6

DM: I’ve had this camera for about 10 years, but there’s a sad and funny story behind me getting this. I was on a shoot — shooting Drake in 2014 — which was memorable for a few reasons. I remember he showed up with about 40 guys who ate all the food on set, slept on sofas; everyone was smoking so much weed – to the extent that the photos were misty and we all caught a pretty significant contact high.

Anyway, I forgot my bag and it had my Leica M6 in it. To be clear, it wasn’t any of Drake’s guys because they all left before I lost it. But it was my favourite camera gone – I was devastated. I’d taken some of my favourite pictures with it, including those of our honeymoon in India in 2013.

But one day, my wife (Reluxe founder Clare Richardson) surprised me with [the one in the picture]. The most insane gift ever.

Cap

DM: This is the first piece of merch we made when we opened the first It’s Bagels! store in Primrose Hill (London) in 2023. We did a run of three slogans on this specific newhattan hat I really liked: “Lox”, “Scallion”, and “Thank You for Shopping With It’s.” We made a 100 and sold out soon after. But that was mainly because we mistakenly priced them at £5, when they should have been £25 or £30!

Speakers

DM: So I’ve got this old friend Devon Turnbull (aka Ojas) — a graffiti artist, designer — who I’ve known since 2001 and who was behind a brand called Nom De Guerre with the Supreme guys in New York back in the day. Everything he does, he does with such excellence – to perfection. He subsequently studied sound design and sound engineering and he was making these incredible professional analogue speakers. Then one day, his good friend Virgil Abloh urged him to make these sort of build-yourself consumer grade speakers for the home. So I’ve got them in all of our shops. I’ve always tried to put as much of my personal stuff in the shop.

Rawlings baseball

DM: I took my kids to their first Yankees game this summer and they kept asking when they’d catch a ball. So I bought them this one and got them to sign it.

Bernie tee

DM: This is from 2015. What could have been…

Photograph of kids

DM: This is a photograph I took of my two children on our first trip back to the States after lockdown. My son was really young. It’s special because it’s my kids. We’d been going through all the Covid stuff in London and here we were again in the Catskills after all the uncertainty – it was very special to have that time.

Rolex Submariner

DM: So I was dating this woman for five years or so – we had a whole life together. Anyway, it was kind of winding down and it felt like it was going to end. This was around the time of my 30th birthday and she’d already bought me this gift, so she gave it me and we split (amicably) shortly after. I did think about giving it back, but I’m not sure she’d have taken it. We’re still friends, we’re still in touch.

This interview was edited for clarity. All photography by Michaël Protin.