Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age

Even as machines, robots and computers replace workers, Salgado's powerful, striking photographs reveal the backbreaking and unrelenting toil that is still the lot of millions of men and women around the globe. Never preachy or didactic, these 350 duotone images of tea pickers in Rwanda, dam builders in India, steelworkers in France and Ukraine, sugarcane harvesters in Brazil, assembly-line workers in Russia and China, sulfur miners in Indonesia and others, pay tribute to working people who preserve their dignity in the harshest conditions. In the lyrical accompanying essay, Salgado ( An Uncertain Grace ) laments Japan's industrial fishing which decimates fish stocks, France's agricultural policies and the global exploitation of manual laborers who do the bulk of the world's work. (Sept.)