Hungarian-British photographer Mari Mahr was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1941 to Hungarian Jewish parents. After growing up in both Santiago and Budapest, she trained as a photojournalist before moving to London in 1972. Her practice evolved away from traditional documentary photography toward imaginative, autobiographical tableaux that use found and cherished objects to evoke memory, history, and identity. Mahr's images are known for their evocative, dreamlike quality and their exploration of personal and universal questions of belonging and the passage of time. Her oeuvre has been widely exhibited and is held in the collections of major museums.
In May 2025, on the occasion of Mari Mahr’s work being displayed at the Edlis Neeson Research Space, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, her daughter, artist Yulia Mahr, spoke about her mother and her practice.
Yulia Mahr herself is an interdisciplinary artist, living and working in the UK. She was born in Budapest in 1967 to Chilean-born Mari Mahr and a Hungarian father. Relocating to the UK at the age of seven, she later studied politics and visual anthropology. Yulia’s practice spans photography, moving image, installation, and sculpture, exploring themes of displacement, trauma, womanhood, the body, and interconnectedness. Her work is recognised for blending hyper-coloured and monochromatic imagery, reflecting deeply on memory, identity, and social issues. An acclaimed collaborator with composer Max Richter, she also co-founded Studio Richter Mahr, a creative incubator in rural Oxfordshire.
Watch this YouTube interview with Yulia Mahr talking about her own practice more in-depth.