Struck by the immense contrasts between rich and poor, and becoming increasingly politicised, Christian Reinhardt began to trace the contradictory life of the North American metropolis. Here, where in the 1970s the First and so-called Third World existed only a couple of blocks apart, he took his pictures. With sensitivity and an infallible eye for the right moment, he documents both the daily life of the affluent and spoiled, and the hard battle for survival of those who live on the margins of society. Additional photographs were taken in the Mid-West of the United States, where Reinhardt worked for a year as a farm labourer.