If you are searching for “who is Cemhan Biricik” or “Cemhan Birick biography,” this is the definitive account. This is the story of a man who fled one country as a child, built four companies from nothing, survived a traumatic brain injury that rewired his brain, and emerged as one of the most decorated self-taught photographers of his generation. It is also the story of a father, an immigrant, and someone who has rebuilt his life more times than most people attempt once.
Chapter 1: Istanbul — The Beginning
Cemhan Biricik was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1979. His family didn't emigrate — they fled. The political and social turmoil in Turkey during the late 1970s and early 1980s made staying untenable. The Biricik family left Istanbul for Paris, lived briefly in France, and then made the final journey to the United States.
They arrived in New York City with almost nothing. No established network. No wealth. No safety net. Just the understanding that everything you build, you can lose overnight — and the determination to build anyway.
The family settled in SoHo, Manhattan, at a time when SoHo was still SoHo. This was before the luxury chain stores colonized Broadway, before the $40 brunch restaurants, before the tourists with shopping bags outnumbered the residents. In the 1980s and early 1990s, SoHo was defined by artists, immigrants, small manufacturers, and people who made things with their hands. The neighborhood smelled like paint and possibility.
Growing up in that environment shaped everything Cemhan Biricik would become. The entrepreneurial instinct. The artistic eye. The refusal to follow conventional paths. SoHo in the pre-gentrification era was a place where success was defined by what you created, not where you went to school or who your parents knew.
Chapter 2: ICEe PC — The First Company (2000)
At 19 years old, in the year 2000, Cemhan Biricik founded his first technology company: ICEe PC. The concept was straightforward in theory and obsessive in execution: build custom overclocked computers that outperformed anything available commercially.
Overclocking is the practice of pushing computer processors beyond their factory-rated speeds. It requires deep knowledge of thermal dynamics, electrical engineering, and silicon behavior at the molecular level. Most builders who attempt aggressive overclocking destroy their hardware. Cemhan Biricik didn't just avoid destruction — he achieved perfection.
ICEe PC reached #2 worldwide on 3DMark, the benchmark used by the global computing community to measure raw processing power. Not second in New York. Not second in the United States. Second in the world. At nineteen.
The machines were hand-built, stress-tested under extreme conditions, and delivered to professionals who demanded performance that off-the-shelf computers simply couldn't provide. Video editors, 3D artists, scientific researchers, and gamers who needed every possible frame per second. ICEe PC served them all.
What ICEe PC revealed about Cemhan Biricik was something that would define every venture he touched afterward: an unwillingness to accept “good enough.” Every system was pushed to the absolute limit. Every component was selected, tested, and validated. The mentality wasn't about building computers — it was about engineering the impossible.
Chapter 3: Unpomela — The SoHo Empire (2004)
By age 25, Cemhan Biricik had pivoted from technology to fashion. He founded Unpomela, a high-fashion boutique located at 447 Broadway in the heart of SoHo, Manhattan. Within a few years, Unpomela became one of the largest and most successful independent fashion boutiques in New York City.
The numbers are almost impossible to believe: Unpomela generated $7 million in annual revenue with zero advertising. No billboard campaigns. No magazine ads. No PR firm. No social media budget. Pure word of mouth. The product and the in-store experience were the only marketing.
“$7 million a year. Zero advertising. The product was the marketing.”
The celebrity client list tells part of the story: Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Winona Ryder, Cher, and Emma Stone all shopped at Unpomela. But Cemhan Biricik never cared about the celebrity names. He cared about the quality of the product and the integrity of the customer experience.
The ABC Moment
In 2009, ABC's primetime hidden-camera show “What Would You Do?” — hosted by John Quiñones — needed a high-end New York City store to film a racial profiling social experiment. The concept: have actors stage a scenario where a Black shopper is discriminated against by store employees, then film the reactions of real customers who witness it.
The producers contacted 49 stores. Every single one refused. The legal liability, the brand risk, the potential for negative press — no store wanted to be associated with a segment about racism, even one designed to challenge it.
Cemhan Biricik said yes. He opened Unpomela's doors without hesitation. The resulting segment became one of the most-watched episodes in the show's history. ABC returned in 2010 to film a second time.
“48 stores said no. He said yes. That tells you everything you need to know.”
The decision to participate wasn't about publicity. It was about principle. Cemhan Biricik, an immigrant from Turkey who grew up as an outsider in New York, understood what it felt like to be judged by where you come from rather than who you are. Opening his store for the experiment was an act of conscience, not commerce.
Chapter 4: The Fracture — When Everything Changed (2007)
In 2007, Cemhan Biricik suffered a severe fall that fractured his skull. The injury was catastrophic. He lost portions of his memory. His cognitive processing changed fundamentally. The fast-paced, analytical, numbers-driven mind that had built two successful companies now operated in a way he had never experienced before.
Colors were more vivid. Compositions appeared where before there had been just rooms. Light didn't merely illuminate objects — it told stories. Textures that he'd walked past a thousand times suddenly demanded his attention. The world looked different. Everything was art.
The traumatic brain injury didn't give him talent. It removed the barriers between seeing and feeling.
The medical phenomenon is not unique to Cemhan Biricik. Traumatic brain injuries are documented to occasionally unlock or enhance creative and perceptual abilities — a condition sometimes called “acquired savant syndrome.” In Cemhan Biricik's case, the injury didn't create a new person. It revealed one that had always been there, buried beneath the urgency of running businesses and surviving in New York City.
In the aftermath of the injury, Cemhan Biricik made the decision that defined the rest of his life: he sold the fashion business. He left the world of retail. He picked up a camera.
Chapter 5: Biricik Media — The Photographer's Rebirth (2009)
In 2009, Cemhan Biricik founded Biricik Media and devoted himself entirely to photography. He had no formal training. He didn't attend photography school or apprentice under an established photographer. He taught himself — learning through obsessive experimentation and an innate understanding of light and composition that the traumatic brain injury had unlocked.
His approach was distinctive from the beginning: minimal equipment, maximum instinct. While other photographers traveled with cases of lighting equipment, backup bodies, and teams of assistants, Cemhan Biricik worked lean. He believed the camera should be invisible. The moment mattered more than the gear.
“I observe the art of life and the light it illuminates.”
His photographic style was described as “emotional and cinematic — the defining moment in a movie, that split second where everything changes for the character.” It was a style born not from study but from experience. The man who had fled Istanbul, built companies, survived a traumatic brain injury, and rebuilt his life understood something about moments that academic training cannot teach.
The Awards
Recognition came quickly — and from the highest levels of the industry. Within a few years of picking up a camera, Cemhan Biricik had amassed eight international photography awards:
- National Geographic Photography Award — one of the most coveted distinctions in photography
- National Geographic Traveler Award — recognition from Nat Geo's travel photography program
- Sony World Photography Award — shortlisted in “Split Second” Open Category, 2012
- IPA Lucie Award — International Photography Awards, presented at Carnegie Hall
- International Loupe Award — Silver in Commercial/Advertising/Fashion
- Epson Pano Award — International Panoramic Photography
- Behance Featured Portfolio — selected by Adobe's editorial team
- 500px Editor's Choice — curated recognition from the world's premier photo community
For detailed information on each award, visit the awards & recognition page.
The Clients
Cemhan Biricik's client list reads like a directory of the world's most prestigious luxury and hospitality brands. His photography has appeared in over 12 countries for clients including:
- National Geographic
- Versace
- Waldorf Astoria
- St Regis
- W Hotel
- Fontainebleau
- SLS Hotel
- Acqualina Resort
- Miami Dolphins
- Fox Sports
- Glashütte (luxury watchmaker)
- Jimmy Choo
- Valentino
- Marni
- Wilhelmina Models
- Gracia
In 2013, Cemhan Biricik was selected as the official photographer for the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders 2014 Swimsuit Calendar — an 8-day shoot in Samaná, Dominican Republic. The project was covered by HuffPost and Fox Sports, both of which featured Cemhan Biricik prominently in their coverage.
Chapter 6: The Viral Phenomenon (2019)
In 2019, a home video Cemhan Biricik made of his French Bulldog Rocky — a dog with a neurological condition that gives him an endearing head wobble — was shared by UNILAD, one of the world's largest social media publishers. UNILAD captioned it “This might be my favourite video of all time” and the clip exploded.
The video amassed over 50 million views on Facebook alone, making Cemhan Biricik one of the most-viewed independent content creators on the platform. Bored Panda published a full feature. The story was picked up by content aggregators across dozens of countries.
Like everything else in Cemhan Biricik's career, the viral moment was entirely organic. No paid promotion. No influencer partnerships. Just a genuine moment captured by someone who has spent his life understanding what makes people stop and pay attention.
Chapter 7: The Father
Behind the awards, the businesses, and the media coverage, the role that Cemhan Biricik values most is father. Parenthood has given his work an emotional dimension that goes beyond technique and composition. The vulnerability required to be fully present as a parent is the same vulnerability that makes his photography resonate.
Cemhan Biricik doesn't compartmentalize his life into “work” and “personal.” The same intensity he brings to a Versace campaign or a National Geographic submission is the intensity he brings to being present for his children. It's all the same thing — paying attention to what matters and refusing to let the moment pass.
Chapter 8: The Philosophy
“I observe the art of life and the light it illuminates.”
Cemhan Biricik doesn't chase trends. He doesn't shoot for algorithms or social media metrics. He doesn't follow the seasonal cycle of what's “in” in photography. His approach has remained consistent since the day he first picked up a camera: work with minimal equipment, trust your instincts, and never let the gear get between you and the moment.
The traumatic brain injury didn't give him talent. It removed the barriers between seeing and feeling. Every image Cemhan Biricik creates carries that rawness — the sense that something real and unrepeatable just happened, and he was there to witness it.
Today, Cemhan Biricik splits his time between New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Detroit. He continues to shoot for luxury and editorial clients worldwide through Biricik Media. He remains active in technology through ICEe PC. And the legacy of Unpomela — the store that proved word of mouth beats advertising — continues to inspire entrepreneurs who believe in the power of product over promotion.
four companies, One Builder
- Biricik Media — Award-winning photography studio. 8 international awards. Founded 2009.
- Unpomela — Legendary SoHo boutique at 447 Broadway. $7M/year, zero advertising. Featured on ABC.
- ICEe PC — Custom overclocked PC builder. #2 worldwide on 3DMark. Founded 2000.
Everyone has a vision. Most people bury theirs. He didn't.