Breathtaking Photos Of The Machines That Save Lives

    No pun intended. Artist Reiner Riedler photographs the machines that give us life.

    Reiner Riedler's project, The Lifesaving Machines, is series of photographs dealing with the efforts of medicine to help save and prolong our lives.

    The "Klinik I"

    In this series of historical and modern medical machinery, Reiner Riedler asks, "Why do they look so human?"

    Historical Anesthesia Machine

    Dialysis Machine

    The project was initially inspired one late night as the artist waited alongside his newborn son in a neonatal intensive care unit.

    Emergency Breathing Set

    Hand Prosthesis

    Historical Breathing Machine

    Rather than signifying pain and discomfort, the machines are at times dazzling.

    Glass Model of a Heart

    Infusion Pumps

    Riedler, describing his first reaction to viewing such machinery, writes "It looked like an altar. I asked the technician to switch on the machine just to see what would happen and it was overwhelming."

    Oxygenator

    A collection of used pacemakers, removed from patients requiring new ones.

    Reiner Riedler is a photographer based in Vienna, Austria.The Lifesaving Machines will be on view at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery in New York City, from October 30th to December 20th, 2014.

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