Versus Arts Gallery in Hackney is showing the Nasip exhibition by Mustafa Seven until 26 September 2026. The solo show of street photographs opened on 12 September and is curated by Dr Nilay İşlek.
The pictures come from years of walking in Istanbul and are presented as photographs of chance encounters in the city. Streets, squares, ferries and shorelines read less as backdrops than as social space that is rebuilt daily by the people moving through it: a glance, a wait, strangers briefly sharing one frame. For readers who work on cities, the exhibition is a reminder that public space is defined as much by these passing overlaps as by its built edges.
The Turkish word nasip has no exact English equivalent. Fate, chance and serendipity come close without carrying the same sense of something that falls to a person as their share, and the exhibition takes that ambiguity as its organising idea.
Visiting
Versus Arts Gallery is at 114A Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0QR. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9.00 to 17.00, and closes on 26 September 2026. The private view was held on 12 September from 18.00 to 21.00. The exhibition is supported by Londonist DMC, Impervia Group and Dilara Arslan.