SEATTLE — Flash, Wind on, Crouch, Bob to the music, Flash, Wind, Flash, Wind, Stand, Lean into Kurt, Flash, Wind.
Sub-Pop's go-to photographer, Charles Peterson, is reading from his new book, Charles Peterson's Nirvana. Peterson says his legacy will forever be connected with the band he first photographed in 1989.
"They were newcomers on the scene," Peterson recalled. "Kurt was very quiet. Krist was gregarious.
Both were thrilled to be the subject of a photographer who seemed to capture sound on a purely visual medium.
"It represents the music," Peterson said. "That was always my intention. To represent the music. And that feeling. And being immersed in it. And including the audience so the viewers felt like they could experience it as well."
Peterson often shot blindly, with a wide-angle lens in one hand and a flash in the other.
"And then I would leave the shutter open as long as I could to balance out between the flash, and whatever lights there were.," he said. "And there weren't many lights at that time, especially in the smaller clubs. And then, leaving the shutter open, I would just kind of sway to the music and after a while you become lucky, in a sense."
In a YouTube clip you can see Peterson at work the week Nirvana's Nevermind came out. The band played at a record store in Seattle's University District.
"No stage," Peterson recalled. "Just on the floor. And there were people moshing and carrying each other. It was really crazy".
Kurt Cobain and Peterson recognized in each other a quality they both shared as introverts who played extroverts.
"I think when he got on stage it just became this really physical thing for him. It was his release. And he wasn't so concerned about playing the perfect note live."
Petersons learned to anticipate Cobain's most manic moments. At Raji's, a club in Los Angeles, Peterson had ten shots left on a roll when he sensed something was about to happen.
"Because he'd been pacing back and forth, and kind of crawling and doing feedback, and I thought he's gonna go for that drum kit and he just leapt backwards and I just leaned on the motor drive."
Two years later, headlining in front of 45-thousand fans at the Reading Festival in England, Peterson captured a personal photo. Cobain caught his eye and asked if everything was alright.
"I think in that moment he just wanted that connection, a little hometown connection versus this sea of people in front of them," Peterson said.
With his noisy photographs, Peterson connects his audience with a band on the ride of its life.
Now, as part of the exhibit Dive With Me at Hometeam Gallery, a new group of artists is using the same photographs as a starting point, reimagining the photos in a new way.
The late Rick Klu, Christina Martinez, and Al-Baseer Holly are among the artists who have painted over the photos, taking them in new directions.
"One person pointed out that not many photographers would allow artists to do something like this," Peterson admitted, " but I've lived with his work for a very long time, so it's really fun to see them doing something different with it."
Dive with Me runs through March 30 at Hometeam Gallery, which is located on Occidental Avenue in Seattle's Pioneer Square.
Peterson's prints will also be on display at the Tacoma Art Museum starting October 5, 2024
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