What happens when a German photographer intern joins High Contrast?
The Arrival
It was a cold morning when I arrived at High Contrast in Romania. I met all the team members and was happy to hear that Mondays at High Contrast are special.
But first of all, let me introduce myself. I am a German student and photographer, passionate about art, culture and digital technologies. While studying International Management, I’m doing a 3 months internship at High Contrast, so I’ll be living in Brasov, Romania, just half an hour away from the famous Bran Castle, home of the title character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
After setting up all my accounts, I noticed right away that the creative people of High Contrast are very friendly and not so much Vampires/Dracula-like.
I was stoked to hear that this Monday the High Contrast team was going on a trip to Postavaru massif. The enthusiasm was there, what we needed next was the right equipment. iPhones fully charged, 3 cameras, one GoPro and a tripod, hot tea and some alcoholic magic potion I shouldn’t be talking about.
The Red Slope Walk
Looks like these guys take work pretty serious so we left Brasov only after the last laptop was shut off and we started our walk uphill when it was already dark. “Don’t worry, it’s only wolves and bears around”, is what they were saying.
Walking up the very slippery slope, I could not help myself but look up to the spectacular sky, where every star no matter how tiny, was perfectly visible.
Apparently, there are people that can run up the mountain in about 25 minutes. Well, I think they are missing all the fun :)
As a group of 10, we did a lot of stops to take photos and sip a bit of the homemade plum booze Tudor brought. It took us about two hours but the trip is more important than the destination isn’t it?
At Postavarul Chalet
Just arrived at the Julius Römer Hütte (Germans are everywhere haha), the owners told us that there wouldn’t be enough food because the chalet was a little more busy than usually since Tuesday was a national holiday and a lot of people came to have fun at Romania’s most popular ski resort.
After 20 minutes, the huge table was packed with meat, “slanina”, smoked sausages, cooked rice, pickles, homemade bread, and the amazing “zacusca” which you have to taste to understand. I’ve had no idea how bad a Romanian food crisis on top of a mountain looks like!
During dinner, still the only foreigner, High Contrast creatives adapted with some games, but not the usual high school drinking games, but a remix called “internationalization” where the rules are simple: anyone that spoke Romanian needed to take a sip of the schnapps. I thought this game would emerge to my absolute advantage, but of course there was an extra rule for me, so I couldn’t say yes or no, else I’d have to drink the schnapps. I can’t remember who won :)
Time passed and suddenly we’ve been the last ones in the dining room, so it was clear that our party should continue in our rooms, where we ended up with a truly philosophical talk about different concepts that we tried to analyze, understand and debate. Suddenly it was 4 a.m. in the morning. Taking a last look at the city lights, we have been able to hear some wolves howling, not too far from the chalet. Time to get some sleep.
The Beautiful Sunrise
After about three hours of sleep, we woke up to an amazing sea of clouds and a spectacular sunrise, that you can witness in the photos below.
The downhill walk only took us about 30 minutes, still slower than the crazy ones that run the slopes uphill. Arrived at home, exhausted and happy about my awesome first and a half day of „work“, I started thinking that this must be the different view, from the High Contrast tagline.
Well done High Contrast, that’s how you welcome an intern properly.