The concept of 'standard' and 'normal' in lens focal length is that the view approximates to what you would see with the naked eye. This is a very loose idea, as a camera image is fixed and framed, while our eyes are constantly scanning and we have an awareness of a much wider area around the part of a scene that we are paying attention to.
In street photography, 'standard' means with no special graphic distortion applied to the picture. Both telephoto and wide-angle lenses add their own graphic dynamics to the image, either flattening and compressing in the case of a long focal length, or stretching in the case of a wide angle. On the one hand, this means that you do not have the benefit of such graphic strength to help the images, but on the other hand, the sheer normality of a standard focal length keeps the attention firmly on what's happening in the scene, without distraction. There is no need to think about the special difficulties of working either at a distance or very close.
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