FEATURED IN THE BROOKLYN RAIL - CHRISTOPHER PAYNE: MADE IN AMERICA

"Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne, a solo exhibition now on view at the Cooper Hewitt, is, in the photographer’s own words, “a celebration of the making of things.” Indeed, in his visits to American factories, Payne has documented machinery, workers, techniques, and the materials of manufacture—but as the era of workers making things in America draws to a close, we might ask what these photographs really represent. Those of us who lived through some portion of the industrial age’s apotheosis, and enjoyed the surfeit of manufactured products it provided, were taught by photography to admire the power and promise of technology and industry. In newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and corporate annual reports, photography shaped our image of factories and, with it, our admiration for them." by Jan StalleA