The aim of the exhibition “After the Machines: Industrial Photography from Sachsen-Anhalt”, shown at the Salinemuseum in Halle an der Saale from 27 September to 15 December 2024, was to provide the first comprehensive overview of industrial photography in the region from the late 1920s to the present. Photography is seen as a medium that has had a crucial impact on how the industrial age is visualized. This is due to photography’s capacity to reflect on not just economic and technological developments, but also the social, political and environmental dynamics that shaped this period. The exhibition proved that in an industrial context, photography’s varied applications extend from documentation to marketing to scientific toolkit and artistic mode of expression. In this paper, the curators give readers a glimpse of how they prepared the exhibition and the research underpinning it.