Gwyneth Paltrow Posing With a Snake to Cher Poking Her Tongue Out: Stories Behind Iconic Celeb Photos (Exclusive)

Marc Hom, who has shot the stars for over three decades, gives PEOPLE some of his favorite tales from set

It’s hard to find a more prolific celebrity photographer than Marc Hom.

After moving to New York City in his early 20s, the Copenhagen-born portrait artist landed his first full-page magazine image in 1992: a dual shot of comedian Sandra Bernhard and designer Isaac Mizrahi.

For more on Marc Hom, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

He spent the next 30 years on set with some of entertainment’s biggest names: Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway and Quentin Tarantino, just to list a few. Hom was even behind sultry shots of David Beckham for PEOPLE when the soccer icon was named Sexiest Man Alive in 2015.

When asked about his process, Hom tells PEOPLE for a story in this week's print issue the work is like a “ping-pong between the subject and photographer” — which is why “I only say yes to photograph people I find interesting.” Naturally, he has some juicy anecdotes from his time shooting the stars.

Here are the stories behind eight of his most iconic celebrity photos.

Angelina Jolie

Before arriving to set for this 2008 image, the actress — who was promoting her role in the drama A Mighty Heart at the time — told Hom, “I can’t be too sexy or too sexual in this picture” because of the seriousness of the film, the photographer recalls to PEOPLE. “Then she shows up and this is what happens.”

To Hom, it’s evidence that sometimes “you just go with the flow” while photographing your subjects.

“You can have certain things planned, which is always something that you should have, but also at a certain point you have to let that idea go,” he says. “Things might take a turn to the right and you’ve got to follow that path.”

Gwyneth Paltrow

Further confirmation that “you can’t really plan everything,” the snake that appears in this 1997 shot wasn’t intended to be a prop — it was the pet of one of Hom’s assistants on set.

“I was like, ‘Should we try to use this snake?’ ” Hom remembers. “And Gwyneth liked it.”

As to whether he was the inspiration behind Britney Spears’s iconic VMAs performance with a snake only four years later, Hom says, “You never know.”

Related: Britney Spears Biopic Based on Her Memoir The Woman in Me Officially in the Works

Samuel L. Jackson

The out-of-the-box concept for this 2019 photo of the veteran actor came to Hom in a dream the night before the shoot.

“I couldn’t get this idea out of my head,” he says. “I kind of had to get it out of my system.”

At first, he wrestled with how to approach the actor with the idea, but Hom says he thinks Jackson “really liked it” — “otherwise he wouldn’t have done it.”

Cher

For his shoot with Cher, the perfect image came out of a “spur-of-the-moment” interaction on set.

“I was just there, shooting her, and then suddenly her tongue came out, and I was like, ‘Freeze — that’s the picture that I want,’ ” Hom says.

And clearly the Grammy winner liked the final result, since she used the image as album art for her 1996 single "Paradise Is Here."

“That’s another wonderful thing, when you do an editorial together and the subject loves the pictures that you do,” notes Hom. “They’ll use it for other places.”

Related: Cher Reveals Cover for Upcoming 2-Part Memoir: 'Too Immense for 1 Book'

Lupita Nyong’o

Ahead of the actress’s first Oscar win in 2014, for best supporting actress in 12 Years a Slave, Hom shot Nyong’o in the Plaza Hotel — bearing the responsibility of introducing the rising star to the world.

“You can tell it’s the beginning of her career, because she’s so open,” Hom says as he revisits the image. “It’s like she’s looking into the future when you look at her face.”

Related: Lupita Nyong'o Reveals the Advice She Got from Emma Thompson After She 'Panicked' Following Her 2014 Oscar Win (Exclusive)

Glenn Close

For an actress of Close’s caliber, “they transfer into so many different roles,” Hom says. “She’s such a camelon.”

In this 2002 portrait, Hom opted for almost no hair or makeup styling, wanting “to get the purity of her.”

“She looks fresh — almost illuminated,” he says. “I just love this picture.”

Robert Redford

When on set in 2014 with the storied actor, Hom found himself a bit starstruck. “I’ve known all of his work all my life,” he says. “He was amazing.”

According to the photographer, the stylist wanted to dress Redford in “these really refined sweaters” — but Hom disagreed.

“I said, ‘No, let’s make it much more Robert,’ ” he remembers. “I actually brought my own jean shirt, and he ended up wearing that because I wanted to make it not too elegant.”

Lenny Kravitz

Hom shot this image of the multi-hyphenated performer in his Paris home around the release of his aptly titled 2011 album Black and White America.

“I went downstairs — he has a speakeasy downstairs — and there was this dot of light coming from the street level,” Hom remembers. “So I said, ‘Okay, let’s start like this. Let’s just work with the light.’”

Reflecting on the shot, Hom notes the contrasting textures: “You have this amazing body, but you also have the texture of the scarf, which is kind of rough,” he says. “All that really worked really well together.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer , from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Re-Framed, a retrospective exhibit of Hom’s photographs, is open at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., through Sept. 2. An accompanying book of the same name is on sale now, from teNeues Publishers, wherever books are sold.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.