Critical review with Omar Danial Biuiiuktosun

Written by Dennis Ngan In today’s photographic era where one can almost control and manipulate everything, Omar takes a different path: he chooses to let go. Working primarily with analogue photography, his practice revolves around contrast—between chaos and structure, softness and harshness, control and unpredictability.

The series Street Layers is the strongest example of this approach. Starting as a technical experiment in in-camera multiple exposure, the project evolves into a poetic meditation on urban space, rhythm and memory. Evoking the spirit of a flâneur, Omar wanders and photographs the city, layering architecture and streetscapes within a single frame. The resulting images, shot mostly in London, combine Victorian facades, Brutalist architecture and fragments of the contemporary city into dense, overlapping cityscapes. They echo not only to urban memory, but also to Omar’s own experience of being overwhelmed by the city’s vast mechanism.

What is most striking is how Omar makes the series and how the viewers read it. While traditional street photographers hunt for coincidence, Omar speculates. He begins with only a faint mental sketch of what might emerge, pressing the shutter in anticipation of a result he cannot fully predict. His only consistent control lies in framing, while exposure, contrast, and visual collisions are surrendered to the unpredictable mechanics of film. Each new layer requires him to recall the feeling of the previous shot, retrieving fragments of the cityscape he observes from fragments of his memory. When he presses the shutter again, it is the camera to determine how the visual elements are layered. The decisive moment, in this case, belongs as much to the camera as to the photographer. It is captivating to consider how the final image is shaped by the balance of Omar’s active speculation and the camera’s unpredictability. This surrender gives the series a raw energy that mirrors the city’s own chaos and rhythm.

Street Layers 4

These visual collisions naturally invite interpretation. Viewers may find themselves scanning the images for the familiar—a building once passed, a corner often lingered at. For an instance, they realise that the fragments dissolve into one another in harmony. If one resists the pull of recognition and immerses in the layered composition, a different picture emerges. It reveals the beauty of geometry through the camera’s reordering of the cityscapes. The choice of black and white also strengthens this focus on form and texture, avoiding the distraction by colour palettes.

What is equally telling is the absence of people. In most street photography, the figure of a passer-by—a smiling child, a weary office worker—anchors us in the present. In Omar’s series, there is no such presence. It amplifies a haunting quality, as though we are not looking at the bustle of the city today, but peeking into its memory, as well as that of the artist’s own solitary walks. Omar has a keen eye for interpreting London’s streetscape in ways that are both visually and conceptually intriguing. By allowing intuition to guide his process, he lets a certain poetry flow through his work. The resulting images also stand as testament to his presence in a city he lives and embraces for more than five years.

Omar’s creative freedom often emerges through self-imposed conditions. This approach recalls the spirit of the Oulipo movement. Initiated by a group of French writers in the 1960s, they sought to create works by imposing multiple restrictions, liberating literature by tightening its rules. Similarly, Omar’s use of technical limits opens new ways for expression. It would be really interesting to see how his project evolves if he imposes further constraints on instinct, such as capturing layers within a fixed walking distance or intervals of time. The project could also be expanded across different contexts, such as urban versus rural landscapes or even across cities, inviting a comparative reading between places and memory.

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Omar carries on his role as a candid observer in Breaktime Ballet, where he turns spontaneous scenes into compelling imagery. Shot during a rehearsal break, this unplanned series vividly captures two dancers improvising in a loft. Omar simply responded to what unfolded before him, revealing the tension between the grim, industrial setting and the dancers’ playful movements. Omar imagines displaying the series in a circular arrangement, inviting viewers to feel as if they are both watching and participating. With a focus on voyeurism and glimpsing unscripted moments, the work demonstrates his ability to find beauty in what is raw and unrehearsed, made possible precisely by surrendering control.

Shot in the same location, Empty and Full reduces Omar’s interest in contrast to its most minimal form. It features two photographs of a single chair, one rendered softly and the other with harsh clarity. The diptych creates a dialogue between solitude and structure. Some viewers interpret the images as lonely or sad, but for Omar, the work is about “being enough” and finding completeness in simplicity. 

Breaktime Joy

Omar steps into fashion-inspired portraiture in the series Exoticism of Grunge, which plays with the Gothic style and grotesque. The work demonstrates his technical skill with lighting and composition. It also reflects his curiosity about subculture, identity and unconventional aesthetics. The project is still in development, awaiting a clearer narrative thread—an example of how some of his experiments remain in an unresolved but fertile stage.

Exoticism of Grunge

Looking ahead, Omar’s ambition to expand his practice into moving image and mixed media feels promising. His interest in layering, rhythm and imperfection can translate effectively in time-based forms. The challenge ahead is finding a balance between instinct and conceptual framing, so that improvisation and coincidence are not only celebrated but also critically grounded. Omar’s practice is not yet fully settled, but it is precisely this openness that makes his work compelling to watch as it continues to evolve.