This book contains everything presented in the display spaces of the MAST Foundation in 2016.

The Jacob Tuggener: Fabrik/Nuits de Bal exhibition explored the factory and labour in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s in pictures of distinctly cinematographic quality, totally new and unique. The Ceramica, latte, macchine e logistica. Fotografie dell’Emilia-Romagna al lavoro exhibition addressed the changes to the Emilia-Romagna landscape over the last 20 years with the global economy and move towards a service society. Finally, Dayanita Singh: Museum of Machines presented a contemporary artist who builds her own house, factory and museum: structures that enable her to photograph the working reality, the Indian one especially, and make it the focus of reflection.

The third stop on a picture journey commenced in 2013, the book bears witness to a desire to place the photographers’ gaze on work, society and the local area at the heart of the artistic and cultural design of the MAST Foundation, becoming part of a systematic programme of publications that record the painstaking study and analysis of the evolution of industry and work – and of industrial photography at the same time.

Reflecting the vocation of the MAST Foundation, this book gives a voice and visual representation to the debate on the history, present and future of innovation and industrial development, on the changes underway in the workplace, on the interaction between economic forces and social structures, and on the future that lies before each one of us.