Photographer Captures Extraordinary People From All Across The World At Turkish Airport

Mustafa Çankaya is a photographer from Istanbul, Turkey, who also works at Atatürk Airport.

He meets thousands of different people passing by every day, from every culture and every part of Earth. It's like a treasure for a photographer like him! That inspired him to combine his passion for photography with his job at the airport and create a project called “100 Faces 100 Countries”.

So, the project works like that: Mustafa walks around the transit section of the airport during his break trying to find the right person to capture. They have to be different in some way. It could be their hairstyle or the dress, but the most significant is the atmosphere between him and the participant.

He started his project in March 2018 and has now taken 117 portraits from people from 77 different countries. He'll continue with his project with the hope of having an exhibition of 100 different countries.

Scroll down to see some of his work:

Freya From Scotland

Freya studies Human Sciences at University of Oxford. She was flying to Kenya for her studies.

Frankie J From England

Frankie J is one of the best house dancers on the planet. We have met before at Istanbul Street Dance Carnival. He was the judge for House Dance contest and I was a photographer there.

Ed From Kenya

Ed has both British & Kenya nationalities. He was waiting for his flight to Nairobi country.

Indrė From Lithuania

Indrė was heading to California to spend her summer there.

Jussi From Finland

Jussi owns a tattoo studio in Helsinki. We met before his flight to Africa. He was going to have a long journey to the middle of the jungle.

Sebastian From Poland

Sebastian's last adventure was the trip to the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. He climbed to the Peak Korzhenevskaya which is 7105 m high and it took him 8 days. He was there at the same time (13th August) when the helicopter crash happened and three Russian climbers and two Tajik pilots died in the accident.

Paris From United States

Her full name is Paris London. What a beautiful name! She had lovely holidays in Greece and was heading home.

Frédéric From France

Frédéric is a teacher in Nigeria. After 2 months summer vacation he was flying back to start the new semester. By the way, the jacket is his own design.

Shayma From Kuwait

Shayma was following the project before we met. She wrote me between her connecting flight to Greece. She studies medicine in Malta and also volunteers for refugees in Athens.

Kavinthida From Thailand

Kavinthida had holidays in Denmark. She had a very long layover.

Lubna From Egypt

Lubna is a psytrance Dj from Egypt. She lives in Sharm el Sheikh.

Ibrahim Zethy From Rwanda

This is what happens if you meet a dancer from Rwanda at the airport. Thanks to Ibrahim Zethy!

Bash From Lebanon

Bash arrived from the Burning Man festival, the dust is still on his shoes. He is a percussion artist playing djembe drum.

Barkinado From Senegal

Barkinado is a Senegalese painter and he has an upcoming exhibition at France La Motte-Servolex.

Idris From Nigeria

Idris is a fashion stylist from Nigeria. You can hire him both in Nigeria and Kenya! He travels a lot and we met just before his flight to New York.

Jargal From Mongolia

I have met Jargal before her flight to Ulaanbaatar. She studies in Frankfurt, Germany.

Jacob From Sweden

Jacob is a medical student from Sweden. He was on the way to Sudan with a group of international students.

Luna From Chile

Luna had holidays with her friends in Kenya. She lives in Germany.

Sadeem From Pakistan

Sadeem studies Global Development in the University of Copenhagen. He loves to play his guitar as a hobby.

Parl From Estonia

Parl is a heptathlete from Estonia. Hereby I've learned that "hepta" means seven in Greek. We have met before her flight Houston.

Christophe From Belgium

His T-shirt rocks! It even made me ask Christophe to join the project.

Sara From Tanzania

Sara was in Barcelona for holidays. I really love the natural look in this picture.

Sara From Iran

Happy to have Sara in the project! She studies dentistry and design in Moscow.

Gerd From Denmark

Gerd denied my offer to participate in my project at first. But, she had enough time to think about it when she was in Niger! When she came back, she explained that she liked the way this project connects people from all over the world. We met again on her way back to Denmark and had enough time for a photoshoot and a conversation.

Rahma From Tunisia

Rahma is a sports teacher. She was on the way to Romania.

Martina From Austria

Thanks for spreading love Martina!

Miljana From Serbia

Miljana is a tattoo artist. She was having holidays with her boyfriend.

Aldar From Russia

Aldar grew up in United Kingdom and still lives in London.

Nicole From Ukraine

Nicole is a tattoo artist from Odessa. She was starting a tour in Europe for tattoo lovers.

Katirina From Bulgaria

Katirina was on work & travel program at New Jersey with her friend. I met them on the way back to Bulgaria.

Anja From Slovenia

Takeshi From Japan

Takeshi is an architect and fashion designer from Japan. He designed his dress which was inspired by the Arabic dress called thawb.

Philip Chang From South Korea

Chang with his friend arrived to Sweden. We met on their way back to Seoul.

Reference: Artfidoblog