For the Strassenbilder series, Lukas Hoffmann used the large-format camera in a very unusual way, namely freehand without a tripod. With the focus set at 80 cm, he approached people in Berlin to take pictures unnoticed from this very short distance. The photographer looked for a condensation of the situation in postures, textures of skin and clothing or in hair blown through by light and wind. 

As the camera has no viewfinder, it is impossible to control the exact framing and focus. Instead, it allows an unnoticed, intimate view. Unusual details such as the play of shadows in the folds of a skirt, precisely captured thanks to a negative size of 13 x 18 cm, determine the composition. By using the bulky large-format camera, Lukas Hoffmann introduces an unusual process into the tradition of street photography. The consistent viewing distance imposes a strictness on the series, which is repeatedly broken by the differently composed image motifs. 

Of more than 500 exposed sheet films, the photographer decided that only about 35 were of interest.