Cab-driving shutterbug chronicles Istanbul´s underbelly

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Sevket Sahintas works the night shift driving his taxi around Istanbul, Turkey, from midnight until dawn.

His route takes him past symbols of wealth old and new: the ornate carved stone gates of a 19th-century Ottoman sultan´s palace, the gleaming high-rises in the city´s rapidly growing financial district.

Periodically, Sahintas stops his yellow cab not for customers, but for photos.

Under a roaring overpass, he steps out of his vehicle and walks across the street to two homeless men who sleep huddled on the concrete under a blanket next to a half-finished plastic bottle of water.

Sahintas pauses for a moment and presses a button on his small camera. A flash erupts, then he turns and walks slowly back to the car.

In addition to being a cabbie, Sahintas is a self-taught photographer. He focuses his lens on the poorest segments of Istanbul´s society. Sahintas, who began driving a taxi when he was 19, said he started taking photos five years ago when he began working the night shift. Watch Sahintas as he photographs street scenes »

"I saw people on the street in winter. They were cold at night," he said. "To make their voices heard, I wanted to buy a camera and show that these people are living in difficult conditions. That´s how it started."

Sahintas takes photos of homeless people, who often sleep barefoot in bus stops next to billboards where smiling models advertise everything from ice cream bars to credit cards. See the streets through Sahintas´ lens »

"I like to capture those contradictions," he said. "Happy smiling people on the ad boards beside that unhappy person who is trying to sleep. I want the happy people to see that minority and do something about it."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/05/sevket.sahintas.taxi.photographer/index.html#cnnSTCVideo