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Anaïde Gregory Studio is a group of industrial designers based in Geneva, Switzerland. Their team recently had the chance to explore another corner of the world by accepting a Swatch Artists Residency at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. Taking the plunge, they traveled in China over the course of five months, venturing off the tourist circuit to get a first-hand look at production in Datang, Dongguan, Jingdezhen, and Foshan.
They share their trip in the book Made in China diary: an industrial design report, available for purchase online in English and French ($33). Bound with a red cover, the 156-page photo essay examines Chinese manufacturing on-site, collecting 250 photographs of people at work in small-scale workshops, garages, and larger factories. The images depict the work that goes into objects such as pottery, sneakers, and freshwater pearls, showing how business increasingly favors machines over people. As product industries are delocalized and dehumanized, fewer people can make a life in fabrication. Anaïde Gregory Studio may well have documented the end of an era in labor and production.
