First edition of Charles Peterson’s Nirvana by Charles Peterson (2023) First impression  Large format hardback in new condition  About For millennia, “nirvana” has been a term associated with belief systems of the Indian subcontinent. But in 1988, a band from a small coastal town in Washington state decided to create some new associations with this word . . . through their music.  Active for just six years, Nirvana left an indelible mark on the late twentieth century that remains visible today. Photographer and self-described “music fanatic” Charles Peterson, a fellow twenty-something from the suburbs of Seattle, was present with his camera as a genre took form, and his images have become synonymous with the sounds, styles, movement and attitude known as Grunge.   Charles Peterson’s Nirvana expands beyond Peterson’s iconic images of the band seen repeatedly over the last thirty years. Over a five-year photo edit, Peterson looked at each one of thousands of frames, considering what drew him to Nirvana in the first place—their music.

During the six years of his professional career, thousands of photos were taken of Kurt Cobain both in concert and offstage — but he hated the bulk of them. This photograph, taken at Seattle's legendary Crocodile Cafe in the fall of 1992, was one of the few personal snapshots Kurt liked enough to keep in […]

Writer Charles R. Cross mines Kurt Cobain's archives for book