For decades, Leo Kandl has repeatedly depicted his immediate surroundings, the formerly rural working-class district of Floridsdorf, in his extensive photographic work. Until the 1960s, Leo Kandl’s parents ran a shop selling paints, varnishes, drugstore goods, and household items at Brünner Straße 165.

In Kandl’s street photography, the 21st district becomes the backdrop against which the mostly unspectacular everyday life of the native and immigrant residents unfolds live. Kandl takes a restrained approach to photography, avoiding superficially ‘exciting’ perspectives and ‘decisive moments.‘ People linger in squares and streets or move through the urban space, with the photographer’s interest focused less on portraying individuals than on the sober depiction of situations and constellations in public space. His images open up a broad social panorama and subtly hint at possible areas of social tension, cultural differences, precariousness, and social exclusion, but essentially show the unspectacular normality of the suburbs.