“Iconic” is one of those words that is bandied around far too liberally nowadays. You can’t move for seeing a lipstick brand or airport advert or matcha café screaming that it’s “iconic”. But to be genuinely iconic is to be singular, to create something that changes culture and is known by all. And that is how you’d describe the works of photographer Lorenzo Agius, which are being displayed in a career-spanning exhibition, LOOK AT ME: Framing the Iconic, at Corinthia London this month.

Agius has spent the best part of three decades capturing emblematic portraits of cultural idols. It was he who created the era-defining campaign for the 1996 film Trainspotting, including the enduring image of a soaking wet Ewan McGregor with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. And it was his lens that captured Noel Gallagher and Patsy Kensit lounging on a union flag for the cover of Vanity Fair – and in doing so, made history as the first photographer to have their debut work for the glossy on the cover.

In fact, Agius’s entire career reads like a who’s who of celebrity culture. He has shot Helena Bonham Carter, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Meryl Streep… You get the idea.

At the exhibition, curated by Professor Charlene Vella of the University of Malta (a nice touch for a British-Maltese photographer), Agius’s celebrated images appear to “float” through Corinthia’s lobbies and corridors. It is an intriguing look at fame in a remarkably intimate setting, asking audiences what it means to be human behind the gargantuan mask that is celebrity. And yes, that does mean you might come face-to-face with a celeb, should you visit the exhibition or stay at the hotel – an encounter you can, just about, get away with describing as iconic.

LOOK AT ME: Framing the Iconic runs until 28 February at the Corinthia London, 10 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2BD 

All photos ©Lorenzo Agius