Dan Martensen’s fashion and portrait photographs have an aesthetic of natural beauty. Often photographing on location and in rural environments, Martensen’s relaxed and collaborative approach creates images of genuine ease and spontaneity. Martensen studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and brings the qualities of an observational photographer - finding meaning within the scenarios that unfold in front of his camera - to his commercial work. With his clear talent for framing the experience of his encounters with his subjects, Martensen is a regular editorial contributor to magazines including i-D, Self Service, Vogue Paris, British Vogue, WSJ Magazine, The Last Magazine, and German Vogue. His commercial clients include major brands such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Mango, Gap, H&M, Anthropologie and Esprit among others.
Wolves Like Us is Martensen’s five-year photographic collaboration with the seven Angulo siblings, the subjects of the feature-length documentary film The Wolfpack. Martensen's book was published by Damiani in fall 2015 to much acclaim. The work was exhibited at the reopening of Deitch Gallery in New York.
In his first edition, Since the early 2000s, Dan Martensen had travelled across America and principally in the States of the Southwest Photographing what he saw. Martensen seeks out the visual paradoxes and embedded histories of the region, taking cues and his creative departure from the work of the legendary chroniclers of the American vernacular; William Eggleston, Joel Sternfeld and Stephen Shore. A selection of sixty photographs from this project is published in Martensen’s book Photographs from the American Southwest, designed by Berger + Wild.