Art Review Christopher Payne’s photographs at Cooper Hewitt sidestep questions of economic uncertainty and geopolitical strife to spotlight the craftsmanship of factory workers. Detail of Christopher Payne, “Handmade wooden former cones used to form a variety of hat shapes and sizes” (2025) from Bollman Hat Company in Adamstown, Pennsylvania (all photos Julie Schneider/ Hyperallergic ) If there’s a factory tour on offer in my vicinity, count me in . As the child of two teachers, I developed an abiding fascination with how things are made during family vacations, roadtripping around the South and up to New England, often with educational detours along the way. We toured a cheese factory, a whiskey distillery, a glassblowing workshop, a crayon factory , an ice cream factory, and more. These places offer a taste of what it takes to turn, say, milk into a creamy pint of Cherry Garcia, and a glimpse at the glinting machinery, ingenuity, and labor involved in the manufacturing process.…