The so-called "Gehfotografen" were street photographers who were mainly active in big cities like Berlin or tourist destinations like Nice from around 1927 to 1935. The photographers gravitated around public places, where they photographed passers-by in series of three shots. Strips of 35mm film were exposed and formatted as postcards. Marketed as a souvenir, included in an album or cut into individual images and folded into a wallet, pictures were marketed to the unaware sitters with the argument that they had had the honour of being filmed. People were handed over a piece of paper saying: "You have been filmed". Those who were interested in purchasing their shots could pick up enlarged film pictures after two days for a total of 1.5 Schilling, which back then was the cost of a lunch. The Graz street photographer's activities can be dated to around 1929-1932, a period that coincides with the Great Depression. The New York stock market crash happened in 1929. In Austria, unemployment and misery were on the rise, eventually leading to civil war in 1934. It seems likely that for a lack of studio commissions, professional photographers sought new sources of income and headed out on the street.

Photos of walking filmmakers are rarely preserved as everyday photography (especially in uncropped form) because they were only produced for a few years. The present collection probably consists of those 1200 photographs that were not collected by customers. If this is true, a sum total of over 10,000 photos were taken. The street was a place of self-expression and a mirror for public display. These photographs represent a counter-model to conventional studio photography, in which every detail was well thought out and staged.