From the abundance of Post-Modern photographic strategies currently in use this book focuses upon what is surely the most spectacular: the "constructed" photograph. The term refers to works of photography in which the motif has been staged especially for the picture and in which the respective artist, in addition to his role as a photographer, also plays the part of director, stage and costume designer, make-up artist and from time to time of performer as well.

The main section of the book is followed by a selection of works that recapitulates the pre-history of the "arranged and staged" photograph beginning in the late 1960s and recreates the climate in which the photographer-stagecrafters of the 1980s found their point of departure.