The First Mountain of Omar Al Gurg

In Dubai until 12 September, Omar Al Gurg presents a solo exhibition featuring photographs taken during his 2021 ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. A six-day journey through five distinct ecological zones, from tropical forests to high-altitude glaciers, becomes the narrative thread of a photographic project that weaves together environmental observation, personal experience and collective reflection. Born in Dubai in 1995, Al Gurg comes from a family of photographers. His practice unfolds as a meditative gesture, attentive to composition and to the temporal layering of landscapes. The project stems from a desire to fill a visual gap. Despite being one of the most photographed mountains in the world, Kilimanjaro is rarely documented in its vertical ecological progression. The exhibition includes around twenty-four cotton paper prints and a projection of one hundred images, arranged chronologically to follow the stages of the journey. The photographs focus on the landscape’s transformations: dense mist, scorched and regenerated vegetation, stretches of lichens and endemic plants, eroded soil and retreating glaciers. The artist also pays close attention to the human presence. Porters, often outnumbering the hikers, appear regularly and form an integral part of the narrative. The title Everyman’s Mountain, a nickname sometimes given to Kilimanjaro, evokes the mountain’s accessibility and the universal nature of the experience. The exhibition is constructed as a visual diary in which the sequence of images conveys fatigue, wonder, vulnerability and adaptation. It is not a celebration of the summit, but a patient documentation of what unfolds along the way.