Tucked away on the southern shore of Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York sits an unexpected gem of an Art Museum known as the Fenimore. While the small town of fewer than 2000 people is known almost exclusively for baseball, the Fenimore Art Museum bats above average in its calibre of exhibitions. Aside from the unexpected Banksy piece and a collection of drawings from Bob Dylan, the current exhibition of famed Danish photographer Marc Hom, appropriately titled ‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed,’ is an exciting reason to visit.
“There’s so many things happening in Cooperstown and people don’t know exactly what it is, which is why people are so confused about this place. It’s not the Hamptons and it’s not the Catskills. There so many layers of people here”
Hom, known for his impressive decades-long body of work, shooting some of the most recognized and iconic portraits of famous people in film, music and fashion, is currently exhibiting his very first retrospective. Having taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum by compiling a veritable who’s who of candid moments from his extensive body of work, including Taylor Swift, Cher, Anne Hathaway, Bjork, Miley Cyrus, Angelina Jolie, Viggo Mortensen, King Frederik X of Denmark, and so many more.
Having been inspired by the structural presentation of outdoor artworks and sculpture gardens, particularly that of Storm King in the Hudson Valley, the beloved photographer went beyond the gallery wall and created an experience wholly unheard of as far as photography exhibitions go. Taking the larger-than-life portraits outdoors and scattering them on a dozen eleven-foot-high double-sided Masonite frames across the lawn of the museum with Otsego Lake and the lush forested hill behind.
“I wanted to do something that was sculptural without taking away from the medium of photography.”
Each frame is a sculpture in itself, with a powerful black-and-white portrait on each side, rotating when the wind blows, exposed to the elements. The iconic portraits of “personalities of the world” are some of Hom’s favourites from his vast career from 1992 up till December 2023. Gwyneth Paltrow holding a python with a jovial expression on her face, Willem Defoe squatting in a brocade jacket, Samuel L Jackson shaving his head with a straight razor, Glenn Close angelic almost mid-laugh. among the chosen portraits on the lawn, each with a unique story showcasing the interplay between photographer and subject.
“You always have to push a little bit and feel it out. It doesn’t always work out. Sometimes there’s chemistry, sometimes there’s not, you never know whats going to happen.”
We had the opportunity to walk the grounds with Hom and hear some of the stories behind a few of the portraits. Hom captured many widely-used and infamous shots over the years, but one of the most famous has to be of late designer Alexander McQueen wearing a pair of horns from his pivotal Dante collection, shown in 1996 at London Fashion Week.
“I was photographing him at his studio in Hoxton Square, London. The chemistry was a little off. I saw this pair of antlers laying in the corner and I said – listen, just put these on and scream. There were I think only two frames before he threw them off and said something like “this is bullshit, this is ridiculous.”
While the exhibition also extends beyond the outdoor grounds, indoors, including images of Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Lupita Nyong’o, and more, the outdoor portraits come alive with their scale and grandeur. Intended to be ever-changing, the exhibition is set to travel to Denmark later this year and perhaps even to Art Basel this winter.
‘Marc Hom: Reframed’ is on now through September 2nd, at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, well worth the journey upstate,