Balat by Charlotte Schmitz

A photo book documenting intimate moments among women and families in a close-knit community in Istanbul's Balat (2012-2025)

“When Charlotte Schmitz first came to Istanbul in 2012 as a photojournalism student, she could not have imagined the lifelong relationship she would form with the city. A complete stranger, she serendipitously encountered families who welcomed her into their homes in the historic neighborhood of Balat. What began as fleeting encounters blossomed into friendships, and over more than a decade—where her life unfolded between Berlin and Istanbul—she photographed women, children, home interiors, and celebrations. 

As part of Istanbul’s ever-shifting cosmopolitan fabric, Balat embodies change, fragility, and resilience. Over centuries, it has absorbed Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Turkish, Kurdish, and Roma cultures, inscribed in its architecture, rituals, and memory. In the recent decade, gentrification has transformed Balat once again: historic houses re-painted for tourists, rents soared, and long-term residents were pushed away. 

The portraits in the Balat series were made amid these social shifts that reverberate through individual lives—unsettling relations, weakening kinship networks, and altering bonds between people and place. Yet the resulting images are moments of trust exchanged between lives, captured in gestures quiet and loud. The connection Charlotte has built with her friends and neighbors offers a counter-memory to the undertone of forgetting slowly unthreading the fabric of our time. In Balat’s world, babies are born, children grow, adults age, and yet the everyday is imbued with joy, as if each moment were singular: colorful, youthful, bold, full of mischief, tenderness, and love. People cuddle, giggle, and revel, honoring rites of passage as much as the ordinary rhythms of life. The book Balat invites readers to immerse themselves in the colorful world of Charlotte's Istanbul with more than 220 photographs and a personal epilogue.” Text by Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu.

The book was l was launched in late September 2025 in Istanbul, first within the neighborhood and among the women themselves, who were closely involved throughout the making of the book: deciding if they want the photos to be included, discussing design elements, reviewing the text, and some even visiting the printing house to see the book coming off the press. The book was first shown as part of an exhibition at the German General Consulate in Istanbul curated by Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu, designed by VenAmiga.

Watch his video to see how the women and families have received their books in Balat.

Team:
Photographs and text: Charlotte Schmitz
Curation and editing: Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu
Book design: Ania Nałęcka-Milach
Printed at MAS Matbaa in Istanbul
Published by VenAmiga, 2025