Ever wanted to visit a pencil factory? Well, thanks to photographer Christopher Payne and The New York Times Magazine, you can. Christopher visited the General Pencil Company dozens of times over several years to document every stage of the pencil manufacturing process. The result? Here we have over 50 photographs from inside the General Pencil factory in New Jersey, USA.

Christopher Payne specialises in architectural photography and the large format documentation of America’s industrial heritage. Trained as an architect, he is fascinated by design, assembly and the built form. Christopher has published several books and exhibited his work across the world.

The General Pencil Company has been in operation since 1889 and has remained family owned and operated across six generations. Currently, it is one of the last pencil factories in the USA. In this photo essay, Payne highlights the beauty of the machinery and manual operation required to manufacture pencils on a large scale.

Photographs copyright and reproduced with permission from the artist Christopher Payne. Check out his website here, and the original New York Times Magazine article here.