EXUM
is a photographer and director based in New York City.
Exum creates candid portraits that celebrate the beauty of queerness, trans, and nonbinary individuals. Their focus is on the moments that exist in between-when the noise of the world fades and what remains is simply being. Exum works primarily with available light and uncurated locations, using analog, plastic, and digital cameras to create images that feel spontaneous, tactile, and imperfect-reflecting the fluidity and complexity of identity itself. They believe there is beauty in the unexpected, in the moments that might otherwise go unnoticed, and in the spaces where people can be fully themselves.
Exum has been commissioned by a diverse array of clients, from Rick Rubin, Adidas, Nike, MTV, Rolling Stone, Cooper Hewitt Museum, and The New York Times, to iconic bands like Slayer, and post-punk band Interpol. Exum is recognized with awards from American Photography and The Art Directors Club, among others, along with being showcased in a solo exhibition in New York at the Leslie-Lohman Museum Project Space. Exum’s photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and renowned photography collector W. M. Hunt.