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_x0002_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 wanderings—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. I only came to photography because of the book. I don’t make photos just to make photos—they’re the blocks with which I build the book. - Dayanita Singh