My name is Çağdaş Öztekin. Good luck pronouncing that. I’m a street and documentary photographer — and a budget traveler — among other things, loosely based in Stockholm, Sweden. I explore life on the margins: red light alleys in Thailand, sleepy Asian towns, right-wing extremists, obscure villages by ancient rivers, refugees, genocide memorials, poor gutters, and forgotten corners of the Balkans.

I’ve biked across Europe along the eastern edge of the Iron Curtain, from Scandinavia to Turkey. I walk a lot, shoot way too many photos, and edit excruciatingly slowly — always aiming to capture people the way they’d want to be remembered… or at least not forgotten.

I’m currently on a break from coding, except for this website, which I started developing in April 2025. I thought it was about time.

Otherwise I still feel too restless for office life — as an old manager once asked me:

“Should we chain you to your chair?”

— my old manager

Maybe he should’ve.
Now I’ve got no time for that.
I’m out capturing people of my own.