It is an icon of pop culture and yet highly controversial: The underwater image of a naked baby with a dollar bill adorned the cover of the Nirvana album "Nevermind" in September 1991.
The picture was taken in a swimming pool in Pasadena, California.
The picture by photographer Kirk Weedle was criticized as early as the 1990s for showing the bare genitals of a child - but it was not until 30 years later that the first legal dispute about photography began: The depicted infant, the now 30-year-old Spencer Elden , has sued the former band members, Kurt Cobain's estate administrators and the photographer, among others.
Kevin Hanschke
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Several aspects are said to play a role in the lawsuit in the Los Angeles Federal Court. A report by the American television station CBS states that Spencer Elden's parents never gave their consent to the commercial and mass exploitation of the photography. In addition, Elden raises serious allegations of sexual exploitation. The nude portrayal of a minor is child pornography that violates US law. As reported by US magazine Variety, the plaintiff is demanding more than $ 150,000 in damages from each of the 17 defendants, including photographer Kirk Weddle, band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain's wife Courtney Love and representatives of the record label . In addition, he never met the bandalthough his parents had been promised a meal with him and the band at the shoot as soon as Spencer grew up. However, due to the early death of Kurt Cobain, it never came to that.
Accusation: "Knowingly produced commercial child pornography"
Elden also told various US media that his identity and name were "forever linked to the commercial sexual exploitation through the image," which he had learned from the photographer as a warden.
Because of the portrayal, he feels like a “sex worker reaching for a dollar bill”.
He accuses the defendant band members and the photographer of "having knowingly produced, owned and advertised commercial child pornography" - also because the baby's genitals were deliberately shown.
You would have promised your parents not to show them.
Nevertheless, the defendants failed to take the necessary steps to protect him and his personal rights and to prevent the black market of images.
To this day, the cover has been reproduced a thousand times.
“Nevermind” is the grunge rock band's most successful album and has sold more than 30 million copies.
The music magazine Rolling Stone voted it 6th of the 500 best albums of all time in 2020 and 1st of the 100 best albums of the 1990s.
In the US media, however, Elden is also criticized: in recent years, he has regularly been photographed in the same pool in the “Nevermind” pose, albeit with underpants.
In 2016, he expressed ambivalence to BBC Radio.
“It's cool, but strange, to be part of something I don't even remember.
It's strange that I did this for five minutes when I was four months old and then that picture got so famous. ”He also talked about the lack of financial participation in the album's success.
Originally, an archive photo of a swimming baby was to be used in 1991. The costs for the copyrights were, however, too expensive for the Geffen Records label. That's why the then unknown photographer Kirk Weedle was commissioned, who in turn asked a couple of friends if their four-month-old child could be the model. Allegedly Kurt Cubain is said to have chosen the picture for the cover himself. Elden's parents received around $ 200 for the shoot at the time. Several years later, Elden received a platinum plaque from the label. It is said to have hung on a wall in the family's living room in Los Angeles.