biography
Chris Payne (b. 1968), a photographer based in New York City, specializes in the documentation of America’s vanishing architecture and industrial landscape. His first book, New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), offered dramatic, rare views of the behemoth machines that are hidden behind modest facades in New York City. His new book, Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals (MIT Press, 2009), which includes an essay by the renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks, is the result of a six-year exploration of America’s vast and largely abandoned state mental institutions.
Trained as an architect, Payne is a graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. His interest in historic buildings and industrial architecture began shortly after college, when he documented cast iron bridges, grain elevators, and power plants for the Historic American Engineering Record of the National Park Service, and, later, produced measured drawings for New York University’s excavations at Aphrodisias, a Greco-Roman city in Turkey. He has been awarded grants by the Graham Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
education
University of Pennsylvania, M. Arch., 1996
Columbia University, B.A. in Arch., 1990
books
Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009)
New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002)
awards
New England Book Show Award, 2010
Ken Book Award, 2010
New York Foundation for the Arts, Photography Fellowship, 2008
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant, 2003
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant, 1999
Graham Foundation Grant, Individual Artist Grant, 1999
exhibitions
2011
Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Muhlenberg, PA: Asylum; 1/19-2/26, 2010
2010
Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH: Asylum; 8/27-12/30, 2010
Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY: Summer Place, 7/22-9/25, 2010 (group show)
Clic Gallery, New York, NY: Asylum; 4/13-5/23, 2010
2005
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (New York, NY): Changing Tides: The Evolving Landscape of the East River (group show)
2003
New York Transit Museum (New York, NY): New York’s Forgotten Substations
2001
Municipal Arts Society (New York, NY): New York’s Forgotten Substations
commissions
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (New York, NY): Changing Tides: The Evolving Landscape of the East River
Friends of the Highline (New York, NY)
press
American Photo Magazine. "Falling Apart", Sept/Oct 2010 (PDF)
Zoom Magazine. Book Review, May/June 2010 (PDF)
The Architect's Newspaper. Exhibit Review, 5/14/10
The New York Times. Exhibit/Book Review, 5/13/10
Boston Globe. "The Photographic Art of Insane Asylums", 4/2/10
BOMB. Book Review, Spring 2010 (PDF)
The Atlantic. Book Review and Interview, April 2010
The Pennsylvania Gazette. "Architecture of Madness", March/April 2010
New Statesman. Book Review, 2/4/10
New Humanist. Book Review, January/February 2010
Columbia Magazine, "Ghosts", Winter 2009
The New York Times. “Showcase: Emptied but Still Secret”, 11/23/09
The New York Times. “The Lost World of Creedmoor Hospital”, 11/12/09
Scientific American Mind. Book Review, 11/09
Omnivoracious. “Amazon’s Best Books of the Year”, 10/25/09
Boston Globe. “Getting Inside State Mental Hospitals”, 10/25/09
Preservation Magazine. “A Terrible Thing To Waste”, 10/12/09
Dwell Magazine. “Asylum by Christopher Payne”, 10/1/09
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, The Book Bench. “Asylum: A Photo Essay”, 9/11/09
Booklist. “Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals”, 9/1/09
The New York Times, Book Review. “Asylum”, 8/30/09 (PDF)
Print Magazine. “The Last Run” 8/08 (PDF)
The Architect’s Newspaper. “Lost City in the Woods.” 4/08 (PDF)
Architectural Record. “Christopher Payne: Documenting before their demise.” 4/06
Psychiatric News. “Rational Buildings Designed to Calm the Disturbed Mind”, 9/05 (PDF)
ART News. “Power Elite”, 5/03 (PDF)
AJ [Architect’s Journal]. “New York’s Forgotten Substations”, 12/2/02
The New York Times. “Vanishing Behemoths”, 10/13/02 (PDF)
lectures
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Long Island Center of Photography, Manhasset, NY
Columbia University, School of Medicine, New York, NY
Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens University, Athens, OH
APA Institute on Psychiatric Services, Boston, MA
The New School, New York, NY
Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
University of Maryland, School of Architecture, College Park, MD
New York University, School of Medicine, New York, NY
University of Florida, School of Medicine, Gainesville, FL
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY
University of Texas, School of Architecture, Austin, TX
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York, NY
interviews/video
ABC Radio National, By Design. Radio Interview, 1/27/10
Craig Fahle Show, Detroit Public Radio. Radio Interview, 1/19/10 (MP3)
University of Texas School of Architecture. Fall 2009 Lecture Series
New Hampshire Public Radio, Word of Mouth. “Amongst the Ruins”, 10/29/09
New York Transit Museum. Online Gallery: “New York’s Forgotten Substations”, 9/03
|
