In the social history of photography, the portrait of people and their living conditions has established a far-reaching tradition. Photographers have been interested in capturing the street and urban turmoil ever since technological developments made photography more mobile and ever since visual culture took an artistic interest in the environmental and social structure of society. 

The relationship between photography and reality is still the subject of numerous photo-theoretical and sociological debates today. Street photography is no less unbiased by this field of tension: Are all of these large-scale photo books as visual milieu studies on a similar level of statement as scientific data collections? How "candid" is the camera really when its image adapts the genre-typical look of street photography? Are the works authentic, objective excerpts of social reality, or are they perspectively and ideologically chosen interventions by an author? Is the image of a publicly kissing couple any less constructed than a wedding group photo? Where are contradictions, where are fluid transitions?