Snøhetta's FRAMED Exhibition at Lillehammer Art Museum: A return to the roots

Snøhetta revisits Lillehammer Art Museum, one of their earliest cultural projects, with the FRAMED exhibition—a visual journey through the American metropolis.

FRAMED offers a comprehensive view of 20th-century American street photography and invites visitors to explore the vibrant cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. The collection, spanning from 1907 to 2012, showcases revolutionary perspectives from American photographers, capturing the essence of urban life during a period of rapid change.

The works are owned by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, an independent Savings Bank Foundation, and the collection is now part of the permanent deposits at the Lillehammer Art Museum and Drammens Museum. The exhibition is a large collaboration between the Lillehammer Art Museum, Drammens Museum, Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, the curators Øivind Storm Bjerke, Svein Olav Hoff and Åsmund Thorkildsen, and Snøhetta's team of architects, graphic- and digital designers.

Making a full-circle movement, FRAMED is hosted in the extension of the Lillehammer Art Museum, which was designed by Snøhetta in connection with the 1994 Winter Olympics. The FRAMED exhibition enables Snøhetta to bring the extension to life by developing the concept, name, exhibition architecture and design, graphic and digital design, catalog, and accompanying book.

The exhibition opened 19 October 2024 and is shown until 20 April 2025.

Capturing the rhythm of city life

The photographers' innovative portrayal of urban complexity is at the heart of FRAMED. Through the lenses of renowned 20th-century photographers such as Diane Arbus, Ed Ruscha, Richard Avedon, Berenice Abbott, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, and William Eggleston, audiences witness diverse moments of city life—hopeful newcomers, playful children, laborers, lovers, and those adrift in the urban sprawl. The images capture the emotional spectrum of city life, framed by the beauty and grit of the metropolis.

These pioneers revolutionized the field of photography, providing profound insights into the human condition through their lens. Their work continues to resonate with contemporary audiences, offering timeless reflections on urban life.

“With FRAMED, Lillehammer Art Museum continues a tradition of photography exhibitions dating back to 1991. However, this exhibition holds much greater significance for us: it marks nothing less than the beginning of a new chapter in the history of our museum. After all, what more could a museum wish for its audience than a new, extensive, and high-caliber collection that is not only unique on a national level but also significantly expands the identity and profile of our museum, opening countless possibilities for the future? With the opening of FRAMED, that is precisely what is happening,” says Dr. Nils Ohlsen, Director at Lillehammer Art Museum.

The concept of the "frame"

The central design concept for the exhibition is the "frame," which influences both the exhibition design and visual identity, serving as a physical and symbolic boundary, focusing on context and periphery. This theme permeates the exhibition, where city frames define what is seen and hint at what lies beyond.

Bringing the metropolis to Lillehammer

The FRAMED exhibition contrasts with Lillehammer's small-town charm. To bridge this gap, Snøhetta designed a "washroom," a transition zone that prepares visitors for the experience, offering stylistic elements that they find in the pictures shown in the exhibition. One of them is a video installation using lights to communicate the city's pulse, such as cars driving and stopping at intersections. Another installation plays on the perception of transparency, reflection, and a combination of both. Together they guide visitors intellectually and emotionally into the exhibition's atmosphere.

When entering the exhibition, the lighted arrow marking the entrance, is an homage to the neon signs characteristic of inner-city streets. The layout of the first-floor's large space is inspired by the typical city grid and diagonals running through it—here represented by a staircase, which also connects the first and second floors, tying the exhibition together in an uninterrupted sequence. The second floor features three sequential spaces, including an entrance inspired by Ed Ruscha's work and elements evoking the American subway system.

At the exhibition's end, visitors pass through a red-lit passage, reminiscent of a photo lab, before returning to Lillehammer, enriched by the big city experience.

Exploring visual urban landscapes and typography

The exhibition's visual identity draws inspiration from American city typography and signage, particularly New York.

In city life, typography shapes the character of the urban landscape, contributing to its identity and atmosphere while also conveying the city's history, culture, and aspirations. In FRAMED, the typographic design is inspired by city signage—texts pointing in two directions, much like how city signs frame the urban living experience.

Signage in big cities functions as a framework for experiencing and understanding city life—not only as directional guidance but also as a storytelling tool, framing streets and avenues with symbols that shape how residents and visitors perceive their surroundings.

"The idea of signage as a city framework inspired us in every aspect of the process. Typographically, Framed has a layout inspired by city signs, with text pointing in two directions, like a typographic freeze-frame of perspective. The typography is American and inspired by New York's iconic road signs. New York is the symbol of the metropolis and is where many of the images in the collection come from. In a way, it is a subconscious approach to the city, which we felt complimented the documentary qualities of the photographs very well," says Linn Wie, Designer at Snøhetta.

Engaging younger audiences

An educational space at the end of the exhibition features a 1:1 scale hand-painted line drawing depicting iconic urban scenes from American cityscapes—like taxis and children playing—that echo the themes of the photographs in an abstract way. As the exhibition is open to everyone, the education room is designed to engage and attract younger audiences and showcase that art, culture, and history can and should be available and exciting for all.

The framing of a coffee table book

The book Framed—American Urban Photography 1907–2012 will become a lasting testament to this historically significant event—for the collection and the exhibition itself. The coffee table book documents the works in the collection and the ideas and thinking behind the curatorial approach.

“It is always a pleasure and a privilege to be given the opportunity to design a book to accompany an exhibition. Exhibitions in their original physical form have a limited lifespan. A book makes it last forever in someone's home – which is quite an extraordinary thought. It showcases the value of books, allowing coming generations to experience the exhibition like we experience the past through the photographs. Furthermore, quite a few of the images in the exhibition are small, but the exceptional print quality of the book helps you revisit the works and get as close as you want," says Henrik Haugan, Senior Designer at Snøhetta.

A full circle moment

This exhibition is hosted in the extension of the Lillehammer Art Museum, a place of special significance to Snøhetta, being one of our first completed projects. For the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, the city council decided to focus on the city's art and culture and expand the Lillehammer Art Museum, a building dating from 1963, designed by renowned Norwegian architect Erling Viksjø. In time for the Olympics, Snøhetta completed the extension in 1994 by constructing an independent building that sought to bridge the architectural language of the original buildings and contemporary formal expression.

In 2016, a second Snøhetta-designed expansion connected the two existing institutions, adding the new exhibition hall Weidemannsalen to the Museum, two theaters, and an interior renovation to the Lillehammer Cinema.

The exhibition feels like a full-circle moment, as FRAMED is precisely the ambitious, large-scale exhibition for which the museum’s space was conceived. The ample gallery space with the high ceiling adds to the visitor experience, and allows us to spread out and claim the whole space by combining several disciplines including art, architecture, graphic and digital design. Snøhetta’s museum design was intended to host large exhibitions that would challenge, inspire, and engage audiences on a grand scale—both in size and typology—making FRAMED a perfect realization of that original intent”, says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Snøhetta Founding Partner.

With its blend of historical significance, artistic innovation, and profound social commentary, FRAMED is an exhibition for photography enthusiasts, art lovers, and those fascinated by the evolution of urban life. The exhibition embodies Snøhetta's vision for the Lillehammer Art Museum, making this moment a landmark in art, architecture, and cultural history.