“Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
Die meisten gehen erst achtlos vorbei, erst aus dem Augenwinkel entdecken sie das auf dem Boden hockende Strassenkind, welches seinen Kopf auf den verschränkten Armen auf den Knien abgelegt hat. Erst danach realisieren die meisten, mit einer kurzen Kopfbewegung um das Geschehen besser zu erfassen, dass es sich nicht um einen menschlichen Körper, sondern um dessen plakatives Abbild in Form eines Past-Up handelt. Der vor dem Strassenkind Abbild zusammengekehrte Papiermüll und das am Morgen tief einfallende Sonnenlicht verstärkt die Plastizität.
[LEICA M6 TTL, Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/2.0, Kodak Professional TriX 400]
Good old Kreuzberg. Lived there for a while back in the mid 1980s – well before the wall came down. At the end of the street there was a creek and beyond that a narrow stip of lawn and then the wall. Sometimes we would go out there and have a picnic and make the Eastern border guards mad – they were yelling down at us from the watchtower and waiving their machine guns, but we just laughed. (Apparently the grassy area between the creek and the wall was already part of East Berlin.)
These are fond memories of mine – haven’t been back there since. Probably changed a lot. Your photographs paint a gloomy picture. I don’t remember Kreuzberg being such a decaying place. But then again, I could be guily of seing my youth through rosy colored glasses.
Good photographs, though. Sorry for the English. I spoke some German before but that was a long time ago.