Six years ago Bryan Adams was approached by Trudie Styler to photograph a portrait story of homeless street vendors for The Big Issue magazine. That story inspired a more in-depth photographic look at these people who live on the streets of London and sell the magazine. The Big Issue is a weekly publication created by professional journalists and photographers, and sold on the streets to provide the homeless with legitimate income and facilitate their reintegration into mainstream society. Today The Big Issue is published in several international editions throughout Asia and Africa. Adams' portraits are direct, compassionate and full of dignity. They depict character beyond social and economic circumstance, and can be seen as a continuation of Adams' 2013 Wounded: The Legacy of War, his portraits of young British soldiers who suffered life-changing injuries during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bryan Adams, born in 1959 in Ontario, divides his time between music and photography. Adams has photographed for magazines including Interview, i-D, Harper's Bazaar, and British and German Vogue. In 2003 he founded Zoo Magazine for which he has received a Goldene Feder Award. In 2006 Adams was honoured with a German Lead Award for his series of photographs of Mickey Rourke. Adams' photographic exhibitions include those held at the Saatchi Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Steidl has published Adams' Exposed (2012), Wounded: The Legacy of War (2013) and Untitled (2016).