WANDA MARTIN

Hungary is a nation synonymous with great photographers and Wanda Martin is the latest name to emerge from that artistic pedigree. Now based in London, she tells Keith Wilson why she feels more at home here than in Budapest…

- Keith Wilson

WIKIPEDIA will tell you that Broadway Market is “an east London street running from London Fields to the Regent’s Canal in the London Borough of Hackney.” But, to the trendsetters working a stone’s throw away in Shoreditch, Broadway Market is a lot more than that. According to fashion and music photographer Wanda Martin, the café we meet in is, “in the middle of the hipster area, so they’re bound to have oat milk”. Being twice the age of the average clientele and without a beard, I feel out of my comfort zone. Wanda on the other hand, with her bright red lipstick, arched eyebrows and dark shoulder length hair, looks as comfortable as a lioness surveying her domain. She greets me with a radiant smile that stays in place for nearly the entire length of our hour-long interview; filled with infectious chatter, poignant stories and bursts of laughter over copious cups of flat white coffee. Served with oat milk…

Tell me about your background. You’re from Hungary and your dad was a photographer…

That’s right. My dad lives in the countryside of Hungary and he was the one that first taught me. He’s still doing photography. Growing up, I was interested in art history because we have some film directors in the family and theatre directors and a sculptor, so I grew up with art from day one. My dad didn’t want me to be a photographer because I always got good grades at school. He wanted me to do something more financially stable and normal!

We’ve all heard that!

Exactly. Then art happened and I started painting first and my images are inspired by paintings. Even in my fashion work I’m inspired by paintings, especially from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Was it your dad that gave you your first camera back then?