1989 – Close-up of a hand in a black leather glove grabbing the iconic star hood ornament badge of a Mercedes Benz car. Photo © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
I shot this photo for a feature story in a magazine. It was my car, a white Mercedes Benz 200D (W123), and of course we did not break off the hood ornament badge! Back then, a new one would have cost around 24 German Marks which was a lot of money for a poor student. I shot the photo on Ilford FP4, a black and white negative film and the defacto standard for high-end b&w shots. I scanned this very old image the other day from the original negative, and I’m amazed at the quality. It’s almost flawless and required not much editing. (Just for fun I left the borders of the frame intact.)
I still love the energy of this photo, the harsh contrast, and the copyspace. I even remember where this was shot: In Kiel at the Königsweg, house number 7 (which is weird as I can’t even remember what we had for dinner two days ago.)
In case you are wondering about the title of the photo: A2018800086 is the original part number of the star hood ornament badge. A new one costs 90 Euro plus shipping on ebay today. Wow.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | Spring 1989 |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Camera | Canon AE-1 Program |
| Image Source | Ilford FP-4 Negative Film |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 16 bits/pixel, Greyscale |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 7279 x 5056 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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