Spencer Elden, naked baby from “Nevermind” album cover, sues Nirvana for child pornography – franceinfo

Photographed in 1991 at the age of four months, Spencer Elden is shown nude in a swimming pool on the album cover Nevermind of the Nirvana group, their eyes peeping at a dollar bill hanging on a hook. With legendary titles like Smells Like Teen Spirit, the album has sold over 30 million copies, becoming a benchmark in rock and pop culture. The child, now in his thirties, has filed a complaint against the group for child pornography.

At the time, neither Spencer Elden nor his parents had “signed document authorizing the use of Spencer’s photographs or his image, and certainly not for the commercial exploitation of child pornography images of his person”, details the complaint. Her parents had only received $ 200 for the original photoshoot.

Spencer Elden never received financial compensation for this photograph and is asking for $ 150,000 in damages from each of the 15 defendants, including members of the group still alive like Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, but also from the from the rights holders of singer Kurt Cobain, and photographer Kirk Weddle.

The images in question “lasciviously showed Spencer’s genitals from when he was an infant to the present day”, underlines the complaint, filed in California. Spencer Elden suffered from “extreme and permanent emotional distress “ due to the dissemination of these images, according to court documents. The young man has reproduced the photo of the cover many times, especially on his 25th birthday.

The baby featured on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album cover recreated the iconic shot 25 years later https://t.co/B51fPwbCfU pic.twitter.com/y9vL6QEhJx

– New York Post (@nypost) September 25, 2016

Spokesmen for Nirvana members and their studio have yet to comment on the complaint.