Jeff Delzer, a Milwaukee-area artist who runs the business reWinder, photographs original cassette tapes and enlarges them to 13 by 19 inches for framing. The work turns a small, everyday music format into large prints that show its labels, wear and printing details. He also enlarges ticket stubs, making both formats a form of visual music memorabilia.
Why the Cassette Still Matters
The cassette tape dominated home and car listening through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, before compact discs took over. Its case copied the album cover at a smaller size, but the tape itself carried song titles, album names and production labels on each side. Many of these tapes are now hard to find, which gives the format a collector's appeal.
How the Process Works
According to the source, Delzer cleans each tape to a pristine condition before photographing it in a studio. The resulting prints preserve details such as wear patterns, typos and mass-production marks. He has also made enlargements from Led Zeppelin cassettes in bubble gum pink, which he compares to Andy Warhol screen prints.
Requests and Limits of the Project
Delzer says he receives hundreds of requests for both cassettes and ticket stubs. He has said he is open to working with homemade mixtapes, which he describes as personal objects. He has also named some tapes he has not yet tracked down, including The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin on cassette and Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door.