1982 – The traces of a firecracker on a wall shwoing the logo of the discotheque JOY in Kiel, Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
One of my early works. After school, I roamed the city center of Kiel in Germany (my hometown), looking for interesting stuff I could capture with my (then) new Canon AE-1 Program camera. One day I way specifically looking for ‘art’ shots – visually reduced images that had a subtext, a meaning.
I found one image at the main entrance of the discotheque JOY at Alter Markt. For 16 years – from 1976 to 1992 – this had been a popular club that had seen its heydays in the 1980s. The name was a perfect match as it had been busy and joyful for most of its time. You can read more about the history at Kielerleben.de (in German).
I still like this shot because of the contrast between the positive word JOY and the traces of the firecracker. I see this as a positive enhancement – joy as an explosive emotion. What’s more, the traces on the wall faintly resemble a dancer (when applying a bit of fantasy, at least.)
What bugs me is that the print slightly crops off the left and right edges of the logo. Sadly, I lost the original film at some point in time, so there’s no way to check whether there was actually some space and, if so, just do a fresh scan.
With this, I wish you a an enJOYable start of the week. 🙂
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1982 |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Camera | Canon AE-1 Program |
| Image Source | 9 x 13 cm print |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4194 x 6127 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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