Nirvana: Personal Snapshots in the Unmistakable 90s
Nirvana: Personal Snapshots in the Unmistakable 90s
3 minute read
Here are Jeff and I in the suburbs of Chicago. He gave me my first cigarette and taught me "Come As You Are" on guitar. He was the rebel of our group, obsessed with Cobain. I haven't been able to track him down for years.Courtesy of Jason Lazarus
In 2007, Chicago-based multimedia artist Jason Lazarus set out to memorialize a unique pop-cultural moment by asking a seemingly simple question of his friends: “Who first introduced you to the band Nirvana?”
The answers and the personal photographs Lazarus collected in response to that query now constitute a time capsule, of sorts. First displayed as a series of large-scale archival reproductions of those personal photographs — each with a hand-written text overlay in the contributor’s own words — the project, titled Nirvana, is now available as a book debuting at The NY Art Book Fair this month.
Flipping through Nirvana (Here Press, 2013) can, at times, feel like an encounter with a stranger’s eerily familiar family photo album. But one needn’t be a Nirvana fan in order to find that the saturated colors and the lo-tech spontaneity of the pictures evoke the look, the feel and the utterly distinctive tech toys (“disposable” cameras!) of the early 1990s.
The quotations from the project’s contributors, coupled with the disarming personal snapshots, capture something of an era that’s recognizable and, at the same time, impossibly distant. After all, it’s been more than two decades since Cobain and company emerged as reluctant standard bearers of a punk-metal juggernaut known as Grunge. (The band’s landmark album, Nevermind, was released 22 years ago today.)
As compelling, and even endearing, as the photographs are, the quotes that accompany the pictures are often, in their own way, more moving. Unadorned, straightforward, they convey the intensity that so frequently informs personal milestones — those times when we transition, willingly or not, from one chapter to the next in our lives.
In the end, the fleeting instants captured in each photograph of Nirvana reflect the essence of the band itself. After the unexpected, massive success of Nevermind (it has sold more than 30 million copies since its release in 1991), they produced just one more album before Kurt Cobain’s suicide in April 1994. In light of the band’s brief, influential life, the wistful nature of Nirvana suggests that all of our significant “firsts” are transformed into mementos in our own minds. We remember them, and they unite us, because — while the details might vary — we’ve all experienced the same highs and lows. We’ve all had our own “Ah ha!” Nirvana moments, and the richness of those experiences shape who and what we become.
Who introduced you to Nirvana?
Jason Lazarus is a Chicago-based artist, curator and writer. Nirvana (2013) is published by Here Press.
Bridget Harris is an associate photo editor at TIME.
Here are Jeff and I in the suburbs of Chicago. He gave me my first cigarette and taught me "Come As You Are" on guitar. He was the rebel of our group, obsessed with Cobain. I haven't been able to track him down for years.Courtesy of Jason LazarusI dated Dave (left), bassist of Oklahoma City's Captain Eyeball. He introduced me to a number of my favourite bands and labels, mostly 4AD and Sub Pop, The Pixies, Tones on Tail, Sonic Youth...It was from him that I first heard "Bleach" and liked it right away.Courtesy of Jason LazarusJosh, my older stepbrother's friend. He would come to our house after school and hang out, allowing me to hang out in their room against my stepbrother's wishes. One day he brought over "Nevermind" and I worshipped them like I worshipped him.Courtesy of Jason LazarusMy friend Phil (left) introduced me (right) to "Nevermind" when we were 14. He got everything from his older sister Laura.Courtesy of Jason LazarusMax introduced me to "Nevermind." I am on the left, he is in the middle. Soon after this picture was taken, we formed a band called 18 Dimensions of Love. We had loud guitars. We opened for Low at their first show. We were a pretty good high school band.Courtesy of Jason LazarusI was married to Gary in 1991 when Nevermind came out. He was a bassist in a Boston area band called The Box. Immediately, he was convinced Nirvana would permanently change music, and we listened to our new "Nevermind" cassette over and over driving from Boston toward Poughkeepsie, NY. It was on this drive we were struck by a drunk driver and Gary sadly did not survive.Courtesy of Jason LazarusRyan, my older brother (left). He played them all the time while he babysat me. I was eight and he was 15. When I was a bit older he'd always include them on mixtapes he made me.Courtesy of Jason LazarusTrinity, the girl I lost my virginity to and a die hard Kurt fan, introduced me to Nirvana on the tape playing boombox in her bedroom.Courtesy of Jason LazarusHere is my best friend from high school, Lindsay, with Wes in the background at a Christian camp in southern Oklahoma. Lindsay and I met in high school but we met Wes at camp. I can't think about her without thinking of Nirvana. Both her parents were alcoholics so if we weren't taking refuge in her room we were driving around smoking pot or going to a local show at the Armory in Edmond. Oklahoma had a pretty good punk scene that I am so thankful for.Courtesy of Jason LazarusMy daughter Caitlin introduced me to Nirvana. I took this picture of her in the Caribbean in 1994. In the week after this picture was taken, she broke her back and spent the next six years in rehabilitation. I remember clearly Cobain's voice as the soundtrack of this time when she lost so much.Courtesy of Jason LazarusMy uncle used to fly me out to Los Angeles as a kid. He was my early introduction to music, especially The Ramones and Joy Division. He paid me $100 to coat check his parties at eight years old. I listened to "Nevermind" for the first time with him, straight through at the kitchen table. I lost him to AIDS in 1994.Courtesy of Jason LazarusMikey, my mom's second husband, introduced me to Nirvana's "Nevermind" record. He was around until I was 13.Courtesy of Jason LazarusThis is my good friend Sitthisack Viraphong from Laos (left) and me at my 24th birthday. Sitthi introduced me to Nirvana at about this time. I was actually full-on in my house music/rave period. We are high as kites in this photo.Courtesy of Jason LazarusNick and I went to the same school. On a field trip he introduced me to "Nevermind." He had, via his father, a large collection of classic and current rock. He got me into weed, we smoked down by Lake Of The Isles. We started playing guitar at the same time.Courtesy of Jason Lazarus
