'Everyman's Mountain: Forest – 001' , 2021, Archival print on cotton rag, 120 x 175.4 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Lawrie Shabibi.
Lawrie Shabibi is pleased to present Everyman’s Mountain, the inaugural solo exhibition by Emirati artist and designer Omar Al Gurg (b. 1995, UAE). This compelling series of photographs documents Kilimanjaro’s striking ecological diversity, captured through Al Gurg’s attentive and empathetic gaze during a six-day journey in 2021. His work offers a nuanced exploration of the mountain as a living, evolving ecosystem shaped by natural forces and human presence.
Al Gurg’s mission was to fill a visual gap – Kilimanjaro’s complex environmental zones remain under-represented in contemporary photography. His images reveal the mountain’s layered habitats, from mist-laden forests and regenerating moorlands affected by recent fires to the fragile ice caps near the summit. Throughout the journey, Al Gurg and a group of hikers were supported and outnumbered by a team of porters, whose vital role underscores the communal and human dimension of this often solitary narrative. His deliberate pauses to document subtle details – light filtering through foliage, the resilience of new growth, and shifting cloud formations – reflect a profound attentiveness that transcends the physical challenge.
At the heart of Everyman’s Mountain lies a meditation on scale and significance. Al Gurg’s experience reveals the mountain as a site where human presence feels both essential and insignificant, a reminder of our fleeting impact against enduring natural cycles. The photographs quietly confront environmental urgency – melting glaciers, forest fire scars, and the delicate balance of Kilimanjaro’s ecosystems – inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationship to nature and collective responsibility.
This exhibition marks the beginning of Al Gurg’s ongoing project to document Kilimanjaro’s changing landscape, with a publication in progress. Everyman’s Mountain is not about conquest but about process: the act of seeing, appreciating, and bearing witness. It is a visual testament to resilience, vulnerability, and the quiet beauty found in the mountain’s every detail, encouraging us all to engage with the natural world through a lens of humility and stewardship.