Çok Güzelim, Çok Güzel by Charlotte Schmitz

Çok güzelim, çok güzel / I am so beautiful, so beautiful is a manifestation of touching colours, shapes and forms through photography, rather than simply perceiving the light through the eye of the camera. Charlotte’s photographs are the experiences that teach her the varieties of light, colour and intensity belonging to objects and subjects of touch. It is through her photographs that we again end up trusting our eyes to feel; the intimacy and the beauty.

In-between the lives that seem to be orientated towards partner search, marriage and having children, despite not actually touching the lives that she has, we better understand what Charlotte sees through her sense of touch — which can be considered an instance for the pleasure that we receive through the things we ourselves cannot touch physically. Worthily of the name Balat, derived from the Greek work palation (In Latin palatium) meaning palace — weddings and celebrations that take place here are of massive importance.

These effulgent occasions are for the girls and young women to showcase and display themselves, as well as to escape from the monotonous everyday life connected to the household. While men are in public spaces, women tend to stay in private. Charlotte focuses on the private, therefore the women — which recalls the political argument used as a slogan of second-wave feminism
from the late 1960s: “The private is political.” Charlotte’s photographs underscore the connection between her personal experience and larger socio-political issues that refers to any power relationships within a house. Moreover, Çok güzelim, çok güzel / I am so beautiful, so beautiful becomes a photographic politicization of beauty through the politics of housework, marriage, motherhood, childhood, friendship, puberty, sexuality, family, celebrations, traditions, short-lived pop songs and perhaps Balat itself.