Archive feature, first published 2019-01-04.
Turkish photographer Mustafa Çankaya started 100 Faces 100 Countries in March 2018 while he was working at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport. On his breaks he walked through the transit area, picked out a traveller who caught his eye, asked for a few minutes of their time and made two pictures: a close, calm head-and-shoulders portrait and a wider frame showing the person in the departure lounge. Each pair came with a short note about who they were and where they were going.
The aim was in the title: one portrait for each of 100 nationalities, and eventually an exhibition. By the time the series spread online at the start of 2019 he had reportedly photographed 117 people from 77 countries. The selection below covers 33 of them, grouped by region, with each traveller’s story retold in our own words from the photographer’s notes.
How the project worked
Çankaya’s method was simple and depended on goodwill. He looked for something that set a person apart, such as unusual hair, a striking outfit or an open, relaxed manner, and then talked to them before he lifted the camera. He has said that the mood between photographer and sitter mattered more to him than any single visual detail. That is why so many of the faces look directly into the lens with a settled expression rather than the hurried look most of us wear at a gate.
The setting helped. A transit zone is a strange in-between place: people have cleared security, have time to kill and are briefly free of their usual routines. Several of the travellers here were on long layovers. Others were heading to study, to work abroad, to perform or simply home after a holiday. The airport itself has since changed its role. Atatürk Airport stopped handling scheduled passenger flights in April 2019, when Istanbul’s new airport on the Black Sea side of the city took over, so these pictures also record the last full year of a famous hub.
The national labels come from the travellers themselves and are a starting point, not a summary. Several people in the series hold two passports, live far from the country named in their caption or are defined far more by their work than by their birthplace.
Travellers from Europe
Freya, Scotland
Freya was reading Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, a degree that mixes biology, anthropology and sociology. When Çankaya met her she was on her way to Kenya as part of her studies. The wider frame shows her cross-legged on a lounge bench with a laptop, a familiar scene for any student in transit.
Frankie J, England
Frankie J is a house dancer with an international reputation in the street-dance scene. He and Çankaya already knew each other: Frankie had judged the house dance battle at the Istanbul Street Dance Carnival, where Çankaya was working as a photographer. The airport meeting was a chance reunion.
Indrė, Lithuania
Indrė was flying to California for the summer. In the wider picture she sits on the floor by the window with her backpack, watching the apron outside. Summer work-and-travel trips to the United States are popular with students from the Baltic states.
Jussi, Finland
Jussi runs a tattoo studio in Helsinki, and his own face, neck and arms show his trade. He was bound for Africa on what he described as a long trip deep into the rainforest. His close-up, with eyes half closed and a single line inked down the middle of his face, is one of the most recognisable images in the series.
Sebastian, Poland
Sebastian had just returned from the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan, where he climbed Peak Korzhenevskaya, a 7,105-metre summit that took him eight days. He told Çankaya he was on the mountain on 13 August 2018, the day a Mi-8 helicopter carrying climbers crash-landed in the Pamirs. Radio Free Europe reported that three Russian mountaineers and two Tajik crew members were killed.
Frédéric, France
Frédéric teaches in Nigeria and was heading back after a two-month summer break to start the new term. He designed the bright jacket he is wearing himself. With his wide-brimmed hat and curly red beard, he is hard to miss in a departure lounge.
Parl, Estonia
Parl competes in the heptathlon, the seven-event athletics contest for women that combines hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 m, long jump, javelin and 800 m. Çankaya noted that the name comes from the Greek word for seven. She was on her way to Houston.
Christophe, Belgium
Christophe’s band T-shirt was the reason Çankaya stopped him. The wider frame shows him relaxed in front of the big windows overlooking the aircraft stands, headphones on. Sometimes a portrait series begins with nothing more than a shared taste in music.
Gerd, Denmark
Gerd first turned down the invitation to take part. She thought it over while working in Niger, and when she passed through Istanbul again on her way home she agreed, saying she liked the idea of a project that links people across the world. The second meeting left time for a proper conversation as well as the photographs, a useful reminder that a good portrait depends on consent.
Martina, Austria
Martina’s wider frame shows her holding a hand-written “Free Hugs” sign in the lounge. Çankaya simply thanked her for spreading some kindness. The Free Hugs idea became a worldwide street movement in the mid-2000s after a widely shared video from Sydney.
Miljana, Serbia
Miljana is a tattoo artist and was travelling on holiday with her boyfriend, who appears beside her in the wider picture. Their matching black outfits and easy body language make it one of the warmest frames in the set.
Aldar, Russia
Aldar is from Russia but grew up in the United Kingdom and still lives in London. His story is a good example of why a single country label can hide a more mixed life. His long hair and narrow beard give the close-up a painterly quality.
Nicole, Ukraine
Nicole is a tattoo artist from Odesa, the Black Sea port city, and was setting off on a European tour to work at guest spots for clients. Touring artists often travel between studios and conventions for weeks at a time. Her own tattoos frame her face in the close-up.
Katirina, Bulgaria
Katirina had spent the summer in New Jersey on a work-and-travel programme with a friend. Çankaya met the pair on their way back to Bulgaria. Programmes like this let university students take seasonal jobs in the United States on a J-1 visa.
Anja, Slovenia
No story was recorded with Anja’s portrait, so we can only describe what the photographs show: long braids, beaded earrings and a bright, patterned yellow tunic. Her wide smile makes her one of the most open faces in the series.
Jacob, Sweden
Jacob is a medical student who was flying to Sudan with a group of international students. Medical students often spend placements abroad to see how care works in places with fewer resources. His round glasses and long fair beard give the portrait a timeless look.
Travellers from Africa
Ed, Kenya
Ed holds both British and Kenyan citizenship and was waiting for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. (The note that first went round online called Nairobi a country; it is a city.) In the wider shot he sits reading in a yellow hat that matches the warmth of his close-up.
Lubna, Egypt
Lubna is a DJ who plays psytrance, a fast, hypnotic style of electronic music. She lives in Sharm el-Sheikh, the resort town on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which has a lively club scene. Her curls and statement earrings suit the music.
Ibrahim Zethy, Rwanda
Ibrahim Zethy is a dancer, and his wider picture shows it: he leaps high above the lounge floor with arms flung wide. It is the only image in the set where the subject chose to perform rather than sit. Çankaya’s note simply thanks him for the moment.
Barkinado, Senegal
Barkinado is a Senegalese painter. At the time he had an exhibition coming up in La Motte-Servolex, a town near Chambéry in the French Alps. Dakar has a strong contemporary art scene, and many Senegalese artists show their work in France.
Idris, Nigeria
Idris works as a fashion stylist in both Nigeria and Kenya and travels a great deal. Çankaya caught him just before a flight to New York. His hat, shearling-collared jacket and colourful earrings show the stylist’s eye.
Sara, Tanzania
Sara had been on holiday in Barcelona. Çankaya said he especially liked the natural, unstyled feel of her portrait. Soft window light and a plain dark top keep the attention on her face.
Rahma, Tunisia
Rahma teaches physical education and was on her way to Romania. Her wide smile carries over into the wider frame, where she sits with a yellow backpack and a camera at her feet.
Travellers from the Middle East and Asia
Shayma, Kuwait
Shayma already followed the project online and messaged Çankaya during a connection to Greece. She was studying medicine in Malta and volunteering with refugees in Athens. Greece was one of the main arrival points for refugees reaching Europe after 2015, and many volunteers worked in Athens shelters.
Kavinthida, Thailand
Kavinthida was on her way home from a holiday in Denmark and had a very long layover in Istanbul. Her wider picture shows the patience that requires: chin in hand, a travel pillow on her lap.
Bash, Lebanon
Bash plays the djembe, the goblet-shaped hand drum from West Africa, and his drum sits beside him in the lounge. He had come straight from Burning Man, the annual arts gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, and the desert dust was reportedly still on his shoes.
Jargal, Mongolia
Jargal studies in Frankfurt, Germany, and was flying home to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. The wider frame shows her reading a book among her bags. Thousands of Mongolian students study in Germany, a link that goes back to the East German period.
Sadeem, Pakistan
Sadeem was studying Global Development at the University of Copenhagen. Guitar is his hobby, and he played for the camera in the lounge, his soft case propped beside him.
Sara, Iran
The second Sara in the series studies both dentistry and design in Moscow, an unusual pairing. Long box braids frame her face in the close-up. Çankaya said he was delighted to add her to the project.
Takeshi, Japan
Takeshi works in architecture and fashion design. He made the long garment he is wearing himself, taking inspiration from the thawb, the ankle-length robe worn by men across the Arabian Peninsula. His two-tone asymmetric haircut completes the look.
Philip Chang, South Korea
Philip Chang and a friend had been travelling in Sweden and were heading back to Seoul. The wider frame shows the two of them sprawled across lounge seats, tired in the way every long-haul traveller will recognise.
Travellers from the Americas
Paris, United States
Her full name is Paris London, which delighted Çankaya. She was flying home to the United States after a holiday in Greece. Her portrait, with long locs decorated with metal cuffs and a floral top, has a calm, direct gaze.
Luna, Chile
Luna is Chilean but lives in Germany, and she had been on holiday in Kenya with friends. The wider frame shows her hugging one of them by the terminal windows. Her dreadlocks and lip piercing give the close-up a strong graphic look.
What the series shows about travel portraits
Seen together, the pictures make a quiet argument against stereotypes. A Finnish tattooist is heading into the jungle, a French teacher lives in Nigeria, a Chilean woman lives in Germany and has just been to Kenya. The captions are short, but they push the viewer to see each person as a whole life in motion rather than a flag.
The project also follows a long tradition. Street-portrait series such as Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York showed how much a single sentence of context can add to a face. Çankaya’s twist was to use one fixed, international crossroads and to ask every sitter for consent and a few minutes of conversation first. If you try something similar, the same rules apply: explain what you are doing, accept a “no”, and send people their pictures.
For a very different way of returning to the same faces, see Peter Funch's 42nd and Vanderbilt: Returning Faces in New York.
Sources: Photographs and travellers’ notes by Mustafa Çankaya, 100 Faces 100 Countries; first reported by Artfido; Wikipedia: Atatürk Airport; Wikipedia: Heptathlon; Wikipedia: Peak Korzhenevskaya; RFE/RL: Five people killed in helicopter accident in Tajikistan (August 2018).
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