final paragraph with a rewrite. Paul Hynes-Allen was obsessed with this place. Even if, he did not understand why. But on a dark foggy winter night, Alexander Platz seemed so eerie; apart from the homeless that lay fast asleep in the shop doorways, there was no soul in sight. After 2 years of dedication to this space, Paul felt his time here had reached its end. Sighing with disappointment about all this time wasted on a project that seemed to have no concept or meaning, it was a desperate hodge-podge of unconnected styles and subject matters. Deviated from the Martin Parr style and a general Postmodern ironic trend, which is expected from every up-to-date street/doc photographer. Then starting home, he walked towards his car, and got inside it, leaving behind him the big sky, the echo of child voices in the empty Berlin street..
The backdrop of grimy, dark, and filthy concrete urbanism contrasts the innocence of a child at play. The Shapes and spaces full of noise and emptiness reinforce the connection/ disconnection between child and parent. While those cut adrift from society and family are represented with images of the homeless. Hynes-Allen, who became friendly with this community, noted how many struggled with the effects of a traumatic childhood. And after 7 years of this project being abandoned on a hard drive, forgotten under a pile of old clothes, and broken camera flashes, he now reflects on these characters, seeing them in relation to the families of shoppers and realizing this significance. Drawing as he does parallels with homeless and a predestined man of Classical Myth. The rough sleepers of Alexander Platz, photographed in a way that conveys a sense of transcendence and spirituality, conditions inherent with mythology are, like Oedipus before them, by nature of the dysfunction they were born into the subject of an unavoidable cruel and unpleasant fate. And as the Sisyphean labor stalks the modern age still, an urban remix of a Classical tale where the condemned man must roll a boulder up a mountaintop only for it to roll back down again plays out in repeating patterns of drug addiction, prison, and living on the streets. These everyday victims of fate teach us that life is not fair and the dark patterns surrounding them, surround us all waiting to pounce. This work was made in an age of national economical stability and cultural sensibility, and for a man like Paul, born and raised in the grim limitations of croydon a notorious suburb just south of London, it was a stone through away from paradise. However, In the years preceding this project, it’s fair to say that the bolder for Germany and across the globe has tragically rolled back down the metamorphic hill. as we all face possible war pandemics and economic ruin. it's not just those born into abusive homes that will face complex trauma in the frightening new world order that is revealing itself to us in ever-increasing levels of absurdity and horror. After 70 years of relative peace at least in western Europe, the homeless veterans of misfortune now welcome us into their world.
Paul Hynes-Allen was obsessed with this place. Even if, he did not understand why. But on a dark foggy winter night, Alexander Platz seemed so eerie; apart from the homeless that lay fast asleep in the shop doorways, there was no soul in sight. After 2 years of dedication to this space, Paul felt his time here had reached its end. Sighing with disappointment about all this time wasted on a project that seemed to have no concept or meaning, it was a desperate hodge-podge of unconnected styles and subject matters. An unfashionable deviation from the Martin Parr style imagery steeped in Postmodern irony, which is expected from every up-to-date street/documentary photographer to replicate. Then starting home, this untrendy photographer walked towards his car, and got inside it, leaving behind him the big sky, the echo of child voices in the empty Berlin street.
