This book emerged after a sleepless night that Reiner Riedler spent in the intensive care unit for premature babies at a hospital as he sat up with his newborn son. Surrounded by machines that are used to save lives, the photographer began to reflect on how much we owe to these apparatuses which at first seem so alien from human beings. Shortly thereafter, he began this project: photographs of machines that save lives or improve patients' wellbeing -artificial lungs and hearts, dialysis machines, dentist chairs... There are no people in these pictures, nor is there room for pain; instead there are just decontextualised machines on neutral backgrounds, some of them human- like in appearance. These pictures reflect on the human body, illness and the prolongation of life in a journey that begins physical and ends metaphysical. youtube video https://youtu.be/WLQOA1KtoiE