Work changes the world. Work has cultivated the earth and allowed civilizations and societies to develop. Work creates values, ensures our existence, and changes ecological systems, natural landscapes, and the global climate. Work is life. This book is filled with fascinating pictures taken by internationally acclaimed photographers, showing people at work in the heat of the tropics, in icy storms, in operating rooms, and in the sterile world of laboratories in the future. It shows archaic drudgery and back-breaking jobs that people do to keep themselves and their families alive even though the conditions are miserable. The images show work that without courage, without patience, without experience, or without passion for a cause wouldn t be possible. And sometimes work that wouldn t be done without people s hope for a life in a better world. This book shows pictures that tell a story and touch people s hearts, but also pictures that are unsettling. It shows the daily life of human endeavor and jobs that are still better than being without work. The photographs show people who are working in the fields, who are hauling things, and who are risking their lives. And they show pictures that document the progress of the way we work and specialists who are already at work creating the future. This book invites you to feel amazement and to broaden your horizons it is a pictorial world atlas of work."