Rapor MG345 — Boombox, Hamburg, 2009

The Rapor MG345 represents the functional center of the boombox era: neither a luxury object nor an extreme status symbol, but a robust, everyday device built for public use. Its design is pragmatic and direct, oriented toward use rather than display. Visible controls, a clear structure, no decorative excess. Its presence is not achieved through dominance, but through reliability.

All boomboxes were photographed to scale, frontally, and aligned on the same baseline. This consistently identical perspective does not neutralize individual differences; it makes them legible. Size becomes attitude, proportion becomes character, design becomes expression. The result is a visual system of comparability in which each device appears as an autonomous personality within a shared order.

The work is part of the series “Boombox – The Golden Years 1978–1983” within the Zeitgeist body of work. The series understands boomboxes as cultural markers of an era in which music left the private sphere and became a collective experience. Eight batteries meant autonomy. Weight meant presence. Sound meant identity.

The Rapor MG345 is not a nostalgic relic. It represents the democratic side of boombox culture—devices that were not meant to impress, but to function. A tool of social practice, captured as a precise singular artifact of urban pop history.

First Release: January 2026

Photography: Alfred Steffen

Location / Year: Hamburg, studio photograph, September 2009

Body of Work: Zeitgeist

Edition, Format & Edition Size

Available Sizes and Editions

(The edition size applies per motif and size, regardless of the chosen presentation.)

45 × 30 cm (17.7 × 11.8 in)

Edition: 100 copies + 5 A.P.

75 × 50 cm (29.5 × 19.7 in)

Edition: 50 copies + 3 A.P.

105 × 75 cm (41.3 × 29.5 in)

Edition: 50 copies + 3 A.P.

(Identical for all presentation options.)

1) Only Print – Fine Art Print

Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta

1 cm white border

Unframed

2) ArtBox – white aluminium

Fine art print on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta

Mounted behind 2 mm acrylic glass

Aluminium ArtBox, profile depth 50 mm (white)

3) Passepartout Frame – white (museum glass)

Fine art print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta

1 cm white border, passepartout

White wooden frame

Glazing: museum glass