Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY

Danish photographer Marc Hom is known for working with some of the most famous and influential figures in the world. His latest exhibition, ‘Re-Framed’, is a star-studded affair. Bringing together his earlier portraiture of artistic, literary and fashion icons – including Louise Bourgeois, Joan Didion and Lee McQueen – with his more recent photographic work of award-winning performers, such as Anne Hathaway and Miley Cyrus, the exhibition unites the old with the new, the inside with the outside, the intimate with the dramatic.

‘Re-Framed’ by Marc Hom

Taking over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, ‘Re-Framed’ does exactly what its title suggests: reframes earlier classic portraits in a fresh and exciting light, and repositions Hom’s photography as the form of art that it is.

Scattered around the lawns of the museum, with Otsego Lake in the background and rolling lush forests beyond, Hom’s black and white photographs stand like monumental sculptures at 11ft high. Fitted on high-rotating frames, renowned and playful portraits of the likes of Willem Defoe, Samuel L Jackson, Glenn Close and innumerable other ‘personalities of the world’, as Hom fondly describes them, beam out at the viewer, while being exposed to the elements and the breathtakingly beautiful landscape that envelopes them.

For those who like the cosy and less climatically temperamental space of the indoors, however, Hom’s work is also displayed in the museum’s main gallery. Here, a fresh-faced Lupita Nyong’o reclines on a lavishly upholstered sofa while a beehive-clad Amy Winehouse sits provocatively on a stool with a cigarette to hand. Hom, who was involved in the design of the exhibition, invites viewers to bask in the eternal glamour and youth, play and power of his subjects, whether that’s in rain or shine, under studio lighting or by the light of the moon.

Viewers will not only be able to come face to face with Hom’s portraits during the show’s US and European tour, but also through an accompanying book, published by teNeues Verlag. Aside from the inclusion of the aforementioned images, Re-Framed, the photography book, incorporates startling and sophisticated installation shots by Hom’s cousin, the New York-based interiors and portrait photographer Thomas Loof, thus reframing the retrospective and its photographs again, so that whether encountered on the page, in the garden or around the gallery, Hom’s work still leaves one feeling starry-eyed.

'Marc Hom: Reframed' is at the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, until 2 September 2024

fenimoreartmuseum.org

Re-Framed, by Marc Hom, published by teNeues Verlag, is available from Amazon