Horch 8 Bonnet Mascot, 1928

About the Work

Shown at a slight tilt against a white background, the metal figure of a winged arrow forms the chief focus of the composition. The emblem belonged to the Horch 8 Limousine, a top-of-the-range automobile. Apart from the bonnet mascot, all we see of the car here is the radiator bonnet itself, in which a landscape with trees is reflected. In this form the photo fulfils a very specific function: the advertising shot exceeds the purely aesthetic representation of the product by staging the bonnet mascot in its modern streamlined version as a symbol of change in society. The image served as a kind of initial at the head of the editorial in the July/August 1929 special issue of the magazine Das neue Frankfurt, devoted to modern transport means. Horch later also manufactured military vehicles for the Wehrmacht.