Balat is one of Istanbul’s oldest neighborhoods—and home to a long-standing and tight-knit Romani community. 

National Geographic Explorer Charlotte Schmitz arrived in the area as a photojournalism student in 2012, befriending locals and inadvertently becoming the neighborhood photographer. Over the next decade, she took thousands of pictures, capturing moments big and small of the Roma—from ornate, days-long weddings to intimate scenes of modern girlhood. These bright and playful images look straight out of a family photo album, which Schmitz has now also turned into a book.

When George Shiras published his wildlife photographs in National Geographic almost 120 years ago, he transformed the medium with his novel use of flash and the first camera traps. In the image above you can see Shiras innovating, as a deer catches its leg on a string stretched across the water (an early camera trap) and thus takes its own photo. Shiras' early photos of deer, porcupine, herons, and other creatures helped create a new genre of photojournalism and led to him being dubbed the father of wildlife photography.

Thanks for reading today’s newsletter, which was edited and curated by Sidney Madden with the help of National Geographic’s photo team. It was produced by Amand Petty. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here to catch next week’s Photo of the Week newsletter.