Work in Process

This book is Dayanita Singh's meditative, sometimes melancholic exploration of a range of work environments across India. It comprises three visual chapters, each springing from individual, larger series in Singh's archive which she has now re-edited around the theme of work. The first, "Museum of Machines," presents black-and-white images of factory equipment, stately despite its grime, and only occasionally joined by human counterparts. "Blue Book" shows photographs of industrial landscapes Singh made on her wandering-exceptionally in color, the serendipitous outcome of running out of black-and-white film. All are tinged with the same eerie hue and form a poetic critique of the sites of labor. "Go Away Closer" returns us to black and white, and reveals the greatest range of subjects, from thousands of scooters in a warehouse to the charming clutter of a shop, and are taken from a series Singh originally edited according to what she calls the "note and feeling" of the images. Together, the chapters are furthermore a blueprint for the work involved in Singh's own bookmaking: the unceasing reassessment of her archive and its rebirth in book form.