The headquarters of GE Appliances (GEA) in Louisville, Kentucky, is not much to look at. The factory, Appliance Park, churns out washers, driers, dishwashers and refrigerators, the workhorses of the American home. When I visited this month, there was frenetic activity everywhere I looked: workers arm-in-bionic-arm with robots on an assembly line, or driving tuggers laden with cargo. Combined with the noise—the humming and clanking and whining—it was overwhelming.

But Christopher Payne, a photographer, was determined to find order and even beauty in the hubbub. I watched as he set up his tripod in front of a pen containing the steel cases of washing machines. Soon they would be fitted with baskets stored on a conveyor belt overhead. For now, they were lined up in precise rows, which seemed to extend far into the distance. By capturing the scene’s pleasing geometry, Payne elevates a mundane object into abstract art. 

Manufacturing was a bigger part of the American economy in the mid-20th century: one in three non-farm jobs was in a factory, compared with one in ten today. Many Americans think of this bygone age as one of brawn and prosperity, when a man on the assembly line could earn enough to support a wife, a few kids and a decent suburban life. Nostalgia for that idea is why Donald Trump campaigned, in 2024, on a promise to make American manufacturing great again.