Christopher Payne
Artist Bio Artist Work
Christopher Payne specializes in architectural and industrial photography. Trained as an architect, he is fascinated by design, assembly, and the built form. His first book, New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway, offers rare views of the behemoth machines hidden behind modest facades in New York City. Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals, which includes an essay by Oliver Sacks, is a journey through America’s abandoned state mental institutions. North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City, explores an uninhabited island of ruins in the East River, providing a glimpse into a city’s future without people.
Payne’s recent work has veered away from the documentation of the obsolete towards a celebration of American manufacturing and craftsmanship. Through the past decade, with personal projects and editorial commissions, he has been on a photographic journey to learn more about what’s made here: the traditional industries that “built this country” as well as the newest and most technologically advanced processes. These images can be found in his latest book, Made In America, published by Abrams in fall 2023.
Education
1996 M.A. in Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
1990 B.A. in Architecture, Columbia University
Awards
2015
Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50
2012
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant
2010
New England Book Show Award
Ken Book Award
2008
New York Foundation for the Arts, Photography Fellowship
2003
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant
1999
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant
Graham Foundation Grant, Individual Artist Grant
Exhibitions
2022
Asylum, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
Image and the Photographic Allusion, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI (group exhibition)
2018
Brick by Brick, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY (group exhibition)
Germ City, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY (group exhibition)
Teeth, Wellcome Collection, London, UK (group exhibition)
2017
Water and Textile, La Manufacture, Roubaix, France (group exhibition)
2016
Remedy, Arts Westchester, White Plains, NY (group exhibition)
The Island Variations, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, Netherlands (group exhibition)
Asylum, Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
Asylum, Deborah Berke Partners, New York, NY
2015
Asylum, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
2014
One Steinway Place, Vous Etes Ici, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Asylum, Wood County Historical Museum, Bowling Green, OH
Inside Steinway, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
2013
White, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands (group exhibition)
2012
Asylum, Het Dolhuys, Haarlem, Netherlands
One Steinway Place, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
Asylum, Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent, Belgium
2011
Asylum, La Chambre, Strasbourg, France
Asylum, Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Picture Books, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA (group exhibition)
Asylum, Elmaleh Gallery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Asylum, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Muhlenberg, PA
2010
Asylum, Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH
Summer Place, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY (group exhibition)
Asylum, Clic Gallery, New York, NY
2005
Changing Tides, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, New York, NY: (group show)
2003
New York’s Forgotten Substations, New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2001
New York’s Forgotten Substations, Municipal Arts Society, New York, NY
Selected Press and Features
2024
Urban Omnibus - Design and Deploy
Dezeen - Twelve Scenes from America’s “Hidden” Industrial World
Architect’s Newspaper - Terra Cotta
Pennsylvania Gazette - The Making of Things
New York Magazine - Staten Island Ferry
New York Times - Inside the Massive Repair Shops Where Subway Cars Go For a Makeover
Scientific American - Chat GPT Brains Inside Robot Bodies
National Geographic - Step Inside the Factory where NFL Footballs Are Made
National Geographic - The Glass Age
2023
Common Edge - Interview
WIRED - The Best Photography Books of 2023
The Daily Heller - The Beauty of American Industry
Popular Mechanics - Industrial Photography in ‘Made In America’
Wall Street Journal - Inside the Places Where America Makes Its Goods
New York Times Magazine - What Does the US Space Force Actually Do?
CNN - The Hidden Beauty Inside American Factories
New York Magazine - Domino Sugar Factory
Columbia Magazine - Christopher Payne Captures the Unexpected Beauty of American Factories
New York Magazine - Here Lies Love
Pop Sci - Inside GE Peebles
Monocle - Up In The Air (Issue 164)
Scientific American - Tiny Bubbles of Primordial Soup Re-create Early Universe
New York Times Magazine - A Visit to the Peeps Factory
2022
CNN - How an Oscar Statuette Is Made
TIME - Inside the Making of the Military’s B-21 Raider
New York Times Magazine - Where Does All The Cardboard Come From?
Barron’s - Dream Boats: Wooden Speedboats Cruise Again
Popular Science - How Nuclear Subs Are Built
IEEE Spectrum - Electric Buses Take Charge
2021
Popular Science - Bean Town
New York Times Magazine - How the $4 Trillion Flood of Covid Relief is Funding the Future
MIT Technology Review - Inside the Machine that saved Moore’s Law
New York Times Magazine - How to Build Roller Skates
New York Times Magazine - Has the Carbontech Revolution Begun?
Billboard - Inside A Vinyl Record Pressing Plant
Milieu - Factory Made
2020
MIT Technology Review - The Factory Where Candy Gets Its Colors
INC Magazine - Spangler Candy
Popular Science - An Inside Look At How Fiber Optic Glass Is Made
The Daily Heller - Interview
The New Yorker - The Race to Make Vials for Coronavirus Vaccines
New York Times Magazine - How To Build A Guitar
New York Times Magazine - 20,000 Ballots An Hour, With Paper By The Ton
New York Times - How Giant Ships Are Built
The Atlantic - Industrial Motors, Made by Hand
WIRED - GOES Extreme Weather Satellites
Maize - On the Edge of Sound
Architectural Photography Almanac - Interview
2019
Golf Digest - How the Business of Making Golf Balls Balls Saved Four Small Towns
INC - Bollman Hat
GEO - Hand In Hand Mit Der Maschine
TIME - Inside the New Race to the Moon
New York Times Magazine - The Making of ‘The Daily Miracle’
New York Times Magazine - The Daily Miracle
New York Times Magazine - What We Learned About Life and Work from Nine New Yorkers
New York Times Magazine - Still At It
2018
TOPIC - On The Factory Line
It’s Nice That - Christopher Payne Shoots Colombian Sweets Factory for New York Times Magazine
This Is Colossal - A Sharp Look at the Surprisingly Complex Process of Pencil Manufacturing
New York Times Magazine - Sugar Works
Oculus - House of Bricks
Amtrak The National - The Made In America Issue
Port Magazine - Annin Flag
De Volkskrant - De Laatste Potloodjes
Capital - La Bonne Mine Des Crayons
Slate France - General Pencil
New York Times Magazine - Inside One of America's Last Pencil Factories
2017
New York Times Magazine - Tesla's Dangerous Sprint into the Future
New York Times Magazine - Water War
Popular Science - The Last Great American Watchmaker
Bloomberg Markets - The Machine of Tomorrow Today: Quantum Computing on the Verge
New York Times Magazine - A Look Inside Airbus's Epic Assembly Line
Selvedge, Issue 75 - Made in USA
2016
Don't Take Pictures, Issue 7 - Memory, Machine and the Illuminated Present
Change Over Time - Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals
Talking Textiles, Issue 1 - Labor of Love
Lenscratch - Making Steinway
New Yorker - Exploring the Lost Grandeur of New York City's Verizon Building
Digitalrev - The Beautiful Horrors of Abandoned Asylums
Smithsonian - Photographer Captures the Enduring Grandeur of the Steinway Piano Factory
Atlas Obscura - Behind the Scenes of NYC's Steinway Piano Factory
Business Insider - Asylum
Bloomberg Markets - Inside Wall Street’s Cloud
Ignant - Asylum
Creative Boom - Interview
Hyperallergic - Asylum
The Week/Captured - Asylum
Aesthetica Magazine Issue 70 - Asylum
Graindephotographe - Interview
BETA, Issue 19 - Textiles
Petapixel - Steinway
Lomography - Treasures Worth Saving: An Interview with Christopher Payne
This Is Colossal - A Photographic Celebration of America's Vibrant Textile Industry
2015
Huffington Post - Technicolor Yarn Factory Photos Show Hope For American Industry
Feature Shoot - A Mesmerizing Look Inside America's Textile Factories and Mills
New York Times Magazine - Uber Would Like to Buy Your Robotics Department
Atlas Obscura - Inside the Colorful, Hypnotic World of Textile Mills
Vanity Fair - See the Abandoned and Inaccessible Island Where Typhoid Mary Died
Planches Contacts 02 - Asylum
WIRED - The Weird Tech and Brilliant Colors of the American Textile Mill
Boston Globe - Asylums abandoned, bodies unconstrained
Feature Shoot - Interview
2014
The John Adams Institute - Interview
WNET Channel 13 - Metrofocus
Design Observer - The Last Unknown Place in New York
The New York Times - Lonely Island
BBC News - Video Interview
ABC News - North Brother Island
Petapixel - North Brother Island
Smithsonian - Exploring New York City's Abandoned Island
Slate - The Mysterious New York City Island You've Never Heard Of
Curbed - Payne Uncovers Disappearing Places
FStoppers - New York City's Mysterious Neighbor
Gizmodo - Exploring the Decaying Ruins of North Brother Island
Untapped Cities - North Brother Island Book Review
The New York Times Magazine - Isle of No Man
Mail Online - Still Made in the USA
Gizmodo - Inside the Colorful Chaos of America's Aging Textile Mills
My Modern Met - Former Architect Shows Untold Beauty Inside America's Textile Industry
The New York Times Magazine - Fruits of the Loom
2013
Urban Omnibus - North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City
The New Yorker - Photobooth
Esquire Magazine Russia - Steinway
Modem - Steinway
2012
Urban Omnibus - Disappearing Histories
Untapped Cities - Inside the Steinway Factory
Elle - Steinway Exhibit
The New Yorker - The Making of a Steinway Piano
Lebbeus Woods - Inevitable Architecture
Design Bureau - Photographing Mental Asylums and Textile Factories
The New York Times Magazine - The Steinway Way
2011
The Atlantic - Inside the Haunting World of 19th Century Mental Hospitals
National Public Radio - America's Asylums in Photographs
TLS-Times Literary Supplement - Book Review, 4/22/11
Frieze Magazine - Book Review, April 2011
2010
The Athens News - Exhibit Review
Guernica Magazine - Asylum
The Wall Street Journal, Speakeasy - Lecture Review
Afterimage Magazine - Sanctuary or Prison?, Vol. 38, Issue 2, Sept/Oct 2010
Scope Magazine - Book Review, September 2010
American Photo Magazine - Falling Apart, Sept/Oct 2010
Zoom Magazine - Book Review, May/June 2010
The Architect's Newspaper - Exhibit Review
The New York Times - Exhibit/Book Review
Boston Globe - The Photographic Art of Insane Asylums
BOMB - Book Review, Spring 2010
The Atlantic - Book Review and Interview
The Pennsylvania Gazette - Architecture of Madness
New Statesman - Book Review
New Humanist - Book Review
2009
Columbia Magazine - Ghosts
The New York Times - Emptied but Still Secret
The New York Times - The Lost World of Creedmoor Hospital
Scientific American Mind - Book Review
Amazon Omnivoracious - Best Books of the Year
Boston Globe - Getting Inside State Mental Hospitals
Preservation Magazine - A Terrible Thing to Waste
Dwell Magazine - Asylum
The New York Review of Books - The Lost Virtues of the Asylum, 9/24/09
The New Republic - Ruins of the Asylum, 9/23/09
The New Yorker - Asylum: A Photo Essay
The New York Times - Book Review: Asylum, 8/30/09
2008
Print Magazine - The Last Run, 8/08
The Architect’s Newspaper - Lost City in the Woods
2006
Architectural Record - Christopher Payne: Documenting before their demise
2005
Psychiatric News - Rational Buildings Designed to Calm the Disturbed Mind, 9/05
2003
ART News - Power Elite, 5/03
2002
AJ [Architect’s Journal] - New York’s Forgotten Substations, 12/2/02
The New York Times - Vanishing Behemoths, 10/13/02
Interviews and Videos
2024
Just A Good Conversation - Interview
2019
CBS News - How Former Asylums Are Becoming New Homes
99% Invisible - The Kirkbride Plan
The Photo Banter - Podcast Interview
2015
LOOK3 Photo Festival - Textiles: Made in USA
2014
WNET Channel 13 - Metrofocus
BBC News - Interview
2011
NPR All Things Considered - Nation's Jails Struggle with Mentally Ill Prisoners
2010
ABC Radio National, By Design - Asylums: A Look at Their History Through Design
2009
University of Texas School of Architecture - Fall Lecture Series
New Hampshire Public Radio - Among the Ruins
2003
New York Transit Museum - New York's Forgotten Substations
Books
Made In America (Abrams, 2023)
Making Steinway (Steinway & Sons/Benrubi Gallery, 2016)
North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City (Fordham University Press, 2014)
Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals (MIT Press, 2009)
New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002)