Blue Collar is a compelling collection of industrial documentary photography by Taiwan-born photographer Eden Lai. Drawing inspiration from Alexander Rodchenko’s avant-garde aesthetics, Lai turns his lens to the CSBC Keelung Shipyard. Through high-contrast black-and-white imagery and a dramatic interplay of light and shadow, he transforms steadfast laborers into timeless symbols, granting the shipbuilding industry a striking new aesthetic identity.

Since its founding in 1948, the CSBC Keelung Shipyard has sustained the livelihoods of generations. With a twenty-year foundation in fine arts, Eden Lai’s career took an unexpected turn when he became a vessel-coating inspector. Immersed in the daily rigors of the blue-collar world, he infused routine technical reports with an artist’s intuitive sensibility, elevating the rugged industrial site through a singular, multidisciplinary lens.

This book is far more than a documentary of labor; it is a convergence of personal aesthetics and industrial grit—where contrast and harmony coexist. Readers are invited to step into Lai’s sensory vision and rediscover the profound value and contributions of these workers.

Designer: Yoichi Yamada 山田洋一