In an age of massive lay-offs, the announcement of the demise of a family-owned factory in a small town hardly causes a ripple on the national business scene. However, when photographer Bill Bamberger learned in 1993 that the White Furniture Co. in his hometown of Mebane, North Carolina, was shutting down, he knew that the closing would have a wrenching impact both on the town that had served as the factory's home for 112 years and on the 203 townspeople who had been employed at the enterprise.

Bramberger requested and got permission to document the final months of the White Furniture Co.'s operations. His photographs of the factory's closing are now on view in the exhibition "Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory" at the Yale University Art Gallery. The show will continue through June 14.

The White Furniture Co., the "South's oldest maker of fine furniture," was known for producing high-quality reproduction furniture. For several decades, the factory had been Mebane's principal employer, and as early as the 1930s, White's had earned a reputation for its hiring and relatively fair treatment of African Americans. The White family controlled the business until 1985, when shareholders voted to sell it to Hickory Manufacturing. Eight years later, the Mebane factory closed down.

In his quest to photograph the closing of White's, Bamberger was given fairly free access to the factory's many departments -- from rough mill to cabinet room, to sanding, to finishing, to shipping. In his images of the workers, Bramberger tried to capture their concentration, confidence and skill, as well as the sense of camaraderie evident among the men and women of various races, many of whom had worked at the Mebane plant for 30 or more years. Later, during the final stages of dismantling the factory, those same men and women are shown withdrawn and anxious about their futures as they sign their severance papers and pore over their pension plans.

Early in the project, Bramberger decided to use black and white film for the candid shots of workers at their jobs or on break, and color film for the more formal portraits of these men and women, whom he photographed in the same style usually reserved for top company officials. Bramberger's images of the factory's interior and exterior are also in color.

"Closing" was organized at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh by John Coffey, curator of American and modern art. Elisabeth Hodermarsky, assistant curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Yale Art Gallery, is responsible for the campus showing.

"The White Furniture Company story is typical of the projects that interest Bamberger," says Hodermarsky. "The photographer chooses his undertakings carefully, knowing that he will devote several months, if not years, to any given body of work. He is drawn to investigations of communities of people -- and specifically to how life-changing social situations impact the lives of the people of those communities."

Bamberger's previous projects have included "Durham County Photographs," a social cross-section of the inhabitants of Durham, North Carolina; a look at the lives of students at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, a private boarding school that was all-male when Bamberger taught there; and "This House is Home," an examination of the significance of home ownership in three lower-income neighborhoods in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The photographer's works have been exhibited in museums throughout the United States, and his images have appeared in such periodicals as The New York Times Magazine, Aperture, Vogue, Fortune and DoubleTake.

The book "Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory" (DoubleTake Books/W.W. Norton) accompanies the exhibit. In addition to Bamberger's photographs, the book includes an account by Duke University Professor Cathy N. Davidson of the factory's history and demise, as well as archival material and Davidson's interviews with six employees.

Bamberger will be at the Yale Art Gallery to sign copies of the book and discuss the exhibit on Friday, Feb. 19. The book-signing will begin at 1 p.m. At 5 p.m., Bamberger will talk about the exhibit and show slides of the "Closing" project, placing it within the context of his work over the past 20 years. A reception will follow the talk. The event is free and open to the public.

The Yale University Art Gallery is located on the corner of Chapel and York streets. The museum is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is located at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby on York Street. For information about access, call 432-0606; for general information, call 432-6000. The gallery's website is: www.yale.edu/artgallery.

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