What It's Like To Drive A Yellow Taxi In New York City

Over the last several years, all the news out of the taxi industry has been doom and gloom. An industry that once seemed impervious to competition or risk has been upended. Smartphone apps like Uber and Lyft have opened the floodgates to amateur drivers and new Green taxis have added thousands of cars to the mix.

The price of a New York medallion - which licenses taxis to pick up passengers - remains above $1 million, by far the most expensive in the country.

Amidst all the hype about Uber, the taxi drivers whose livelihoods depend on the stability of the taxi business get lost in the shuffle. Not for photographer Samyukta Lakshmi, who grew up in Bangalore, India, watching television shows and movies set in New York. For her, the association between the yellow cabs and Manhattan was so strong that she couldn't think about one without the other.

When Lakshmi moved to New York to study at the International Center of Photography, she decided that photographing taxis and the drivers behind them -many of which are from India - was a perfect way for her to explore New York.

Lakshmi's work documents an industry in crisis even as the drivers keep on moving forward. She shared some photos from the project with us here, but you can check out more on her website.