The Making of a Steinway Piano

Opening today at Bonni Benrubi Gallery, “One Steinway Place” is an exploration of the famed piano factory in Astoria, Queens, by the photographer Christopher Payne. Under the glow of fluorescent lights, raw lumber is bent, pressed, conditioned, and polished into instruments of exacting quality. With more than twelve thousand individual parts, including Canadian maple, Bavarian spruce, and Swedish steel, each piano takes nearly a year to assemble before being subjected to a final hand inspection by Wally Boot, a fifty-year veteran of the factory. Payne was allowed unfettered access to the factory, allowing him to document every step of the process. Here’s a selection of his work, which is on view through September 19th.

Photographs by Christopher Payne/Bonni Benrubi Gallery.