Gehfotografen, literally “walking photographers”, were active on the streets of cities and tourist destinations across Europe between 1927 and 1935. This type of profession became increasingly popular with the Great Depression, when the 1929 collapse of the New York stock exchange led to an economic crisis throughout Europe. Unemployment and poverty eventually led to a civil war in 1934.

OPTIONS offers a non-linear reading of the events that led to the annexation of South Tyrol to Italy at the end of WWI. When the area between the present-day Austrian and Trentino boundaries officially became an Italian province in 1919, a choice was given to the local communities: they could either stay, naturalise as Italians and side with the Fascists, or they could emigrate to the Third Reich and leave behind their culture and possessions.