An exhibition of industrial photography by Christopher Payne is currently on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, running through September 27. The display, titled “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne,” features more than 70 of Payne’s color photographs that highlight American manufacturing processes and the workers behind them.

Payne, born in 1968, initially trained and worked as an architect before turning to photography. His transition began in 1997 when he documented shuttered New York subway power stations during a personal project. By 2000, lacking access to render electrical equipment in drawings, Payne started photographing these sites, discovering a preference for photography over architectural illustration. His interest expanded when, in 2010, he visited an operational yarn mill in Maine. Multiple visits and conversations with mill owners and employees led him to explore other aging mills in New England that were still in operation. This evolving fascination with manufacturing and those involved in the production process serves as the foundation of the current exhibition and an accompanying photo book published by Abrams.

The photographs are marked by meticulous attention to detail, including careful lighting, precise angles, and vivid touches of color that emphasize the technical complexity of industrial work while honoring the dignity of labor. Among the smallest manufactured subjects captured are silicon wafers containing transistors at a GlobalFoundries facility in Malta, New York. In “Lydia Fox inspecting a wafer sorter” (2022), the yellow wafers and Fox’s pale-blue protective suit provide striking contrast against the machinery.

In contrast, some images depict the immense scale of manufacturing, such as the “Assembly of Boeing 737 MAX fuselage sections” (2023) in Wichita, Kansas. This photograph presents green fuselage sections aligned in a sprawling, pillarless factory space that extends as far as the eye can see. Another aircraft-related image shows Daniel Ly marking fastener holes on the nose of a Boeing 767, preparing for panel installation. Additional industrial subjects include a GE90 jet engine undergoing testing prep, with exposed wiring and components dwarfing technician Christina Akers.

Payne’s work revisits classic themes of American industry, reminiscent of Leonard Read’s 1958 essay “I, Pencil,” which described the complex supply chain behind a simple pencil. Payne documents General Pencil Co. in Jersey City, New Jersey, capturing production scenes like bright red pencils drying on conveyor belts and yellow pencils moving through a tipping machine that adds ferrules and erasers.

The exhibition also highlights artisanal manufacturing, exemplified by Payne’s repeated visits to the Steinway & Sons piano factory in Astoria, New York. Established in 1853, Steinway produces pianos that demand both skilled craftsmanship and technical precision. Images show workers like Gwendolyn Folk inserting lead weights into piano keys to achieve balanced action and rows of piano rims that evoke cathedral arches.

Other industries featured include Wilson Sporting Goods’ NFL footballs, Blick Art Materials paint, New Balance running shoes, brass cymbals from Avedis Zildjian, Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 Lightning brake calipers, and American flags at Annin Flagmakers. Collectively, Payne’s photographs pay tribute to ongoing American industrial innovation and the skilled labor sustaining it.