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chonzsky
Spencer Elden was just a few months old when his parents got a call from underwater photographer Kirk Weddle, who asked if he could use their newborn baby as part of a photoshoot for an up-and-coming band called Nirvana. At the time, Elden’s father helped with sets, custom rigging and props for photo shoots, which is how he got to know Weddle.
Initially, Weddle tried to photograph babies at a swimming class, but none of those images fit what Geffen Records was looking for, so they wound up choosing one of the stills that Weddle took of Elden. Later on, a fish hook with a dollar bill was eventually added, to make it look as if the baby was swimming towards it. Elden’s parents were reportedly paid only $200, and the shoot lasted around 15 seconds.
Last year, Weddle told TIME, “It was a great concept—a baby underwater, unable to breathe, going after money on a fishhook. After Nevermind was a big hit, they came back to me to shoot the band underwater.”
After the album’s surprisingly successful release, the image would go down in music history as one of the most recognizable album covers of all time, along with Pink Floyd’sDark Side of the Moon and the Beatles’ Abbey Road.
“Looking back, it feels kind of stupid doing interviews about it, because I had nothing to do with it, but a lot to do with it all at the same time,” says Elden, now 25. “It’s a really weird feeling being a part of someone else’s momentum—being caught up in this wake of stuff.”
Posted in: Then and Now
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