In reply to CrushUnit:
When I first got into photography in circa. 1968, I was initially influenced by a photo essay by Lord Snowdon that appeared in the infant Sunday Times colour mag. It was about the strand of society that lives 'on the edge', enduring poverty and other social problems. So I took myself with camera, an old Pentax S3, and trawled around the poorest areas of Birmingham, an area where all the old slums were being gradually demolished, and replaced with gleaming new tower blocks. I capture a family with a babies pram, pushing home a bag of coal. A group of newly arrived immigrant children playing marbles. Other children in one of the long ago age of 'back to backs' playing underneath the washing lines. Locals drinking in smoky pubs and nobody bothers about the camera.
To see a photographer walking around with a camera was very unusual but nobody resented the invasion of privacy. If anyhing, it was welcomed. At night I would go into the city with flash attached, and shoot from very close up, of young people out enjoyng themselves. There were some things that were quite difficult not to film. Some friends pinching beer from a brewery, fights with the police. You have to think very carefully about the trust that you want, and not to push too hard. And of course all this was on B&W with a camera without an exposure meter. Children were really good subjects as they are all keen to be in the picture, but you have to control how you present what is on offer. Today, I can imagine the response of parents if they think someone is taking photos of children. Sadly a sign of the times.
The Landscape Photographer of the Year comp has an Urban section which is thought provoking for Street Photography. Good luck with it.