Samir I: Barcelona through my lens
Aktualisiert: 8. Aug.
If someone had asked me a few months ago which city I would choose for my Erasmus+ experience, my answer would have been easy: Barcelona. Luckily, I didn't even have to decide because it was the only destination our school offered to the photo team. That was perfect for me because Barcelona has always been one of my favourite cities. I had visited it before, but spending almost three weeks there was a completely different experience.
From 16 July until 6 August, I had the opportunity to join the Erasmus+ program together with other students from HAK Salzburg. While most of my schoolmates completed internships at local companies, I was part of the photography team. My job was to document the whole experience by taking photos of our schoolmates during their internships, photographing the companies they worked at and capturing Barcelona itself. Besides photography, I also worked on social media by creating content for Trainee Up, and for two days I even managed the main Erasmus+ social media account from our school.
Our journey to Barcelona actually started somewhere else. Together with my friend Volkan, I spent five days in Istanbul before travelling to Spain. On the evening of 16 July, our flight left Istanbul at around 10 p.m. After landing in Barcelona and making our way across the city, we finally arrived at our apartment at around two o'clock in the morning.
Even though it was the middle of the night, the first thing we noticed was the weather. I knew Barcelona would be hot, but I definitely wasn't prepared for the humidity. Walking outside felt like stepping into a sauna. It was one of those moments where you immediately realise that the next few weeks are going to be very different from home.
Our apartment was located in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat on Carrer Modern. I shared it with Volkan, Sebastian and Tobias. Another friend of ours, Tizian, who was attending a language school in Barcelona at the same time, also stayed with us.
The location turned out to be perfect. We weren't directly in the city centre, but that actually wasn't a disadvantage at all. A shopping centre, supermarkets, restaurants, the metro and several bus stops were all less than five minutes away. After only a few days, we already felt like locals whenever we walked to the metro station in the morning.
Of course, not everything worked perfectly from the beginning.
One of the funniest memories from our first days was something incredibly simple: the shutters in our apartment. Somehow, none of us managed to close them properly during the first nights. That meant the morning sun turned our bedrooms into greenhouses after only a few hours of sleep. Combined with the heat and humidity, sleeping became a challenge. Looking back now, we laugh about it, but at the time everyone was just tired and wondering why it felt even hotter inside than outside.
Before we really started working, our accompanying teacher Christoph Eder showed us some of the most beautiful places around Barcelona. Instead of spending every day in the city, we also visited Girona, Tarragona and the Costa Brava.
I really enjoyed these trips because they showed a completely different side of Catalonia. Girona impressed me with its beautiful old town and narrow streets, Tarragona combined history with the Mediterranean atmosphere, and the Costa Brava offered some of the most beautiful coastal views I have ever seen. Funnily enough there is a very small village near the Costa Brava which is also named Costa Brava. We drove to the small village in the middle of nowhere and asked ourself where the famous coast is before bursting into laughter.
As a photographer, these first excursions were the perfect way to start the programme. While everyone else admired the scenery, I was constantly looking through my camera lens for interesting perspectives. Sometimes it was a landscape, sometimes a small detail in a historic street, and sometimes just one of my friends enjoying the moment.
Unlike my schoolmates, I didn't have one fixed workplace. Thanks to Trainee+Up, our schedule was very flexible. They organised our stay, connected our group with local companies and always gave us helpful tips about places to visit or things to do around Barcelona.
Most mornings started around 10 a.m. We visited one of the companies where our schoolmates were completing their internships. My job was to photograph them while they were working and take pictures of the company itself.
Usually, we stayed there for about an hour before continuing with the rest of the day. Sometimes I edited the photos immediately afterwards, but most of the editing happened during our coworking sessions on specific days. Those sessions gave me enough time to organise thousands of photos, edit the best ones and prepare content for social media.
Besides taking photos, I was also responsible for social media. Throughout our stay I created content for Trainee+Up, and for two days I even managed the main Erasmus+ social media account from our school. It was interesting because I wasn't only thinking about taking a good picture anymore. I also had to think about how to tell the story of our experience in a way that people back home would enjoy following.
Another role I somehow ended up with was being the person who always had ideas about where we should go next. Whether it was finding another beach, visiting a viewpoint, exploring a different neighbourhood or trying out a new place to eat, I was usually the one suggesting our next destination. I enjoy planning trips and discovering new places, so it came naturally.
The best thing was that photography never really stopped. Even after work, my camera was almost always with me because exploring Barcelona itself was also part of my assignment. Instead of rushing from one tourist attraction to another, we often just walked through the city without a real plan. Those moments usually led to the best photos because they felt natural instead of staged.
