Nirvana is being sued for pornography allegations in light of their iconic 1991 ‘Nevermind’ album artwork.
The charges are being laid by the photographed subject – the then-baby Spencer Elden who, as per music publication Pitchfork, has expressed that he was unable to give consent to having his image used.
According to Elden, the band “violated federal child pornography statutes.” His case is sexual exploitation.
“Spencer Elden, the baby featured on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, is suing Courtney Love and the Estate of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, various record labels, and more “for damages arising out of each of the Defendant’s violations of federal criminal child pornography statutes,” the lawsuit documents note.
He’s asking each of the defendants for at least $150,000 in damages, TheDailyBeast records.
Elden was four months old at the time when his parents allowed him to be a part of the underwater shoot, which Elden has categorised as an engagement of “commercial sex acts.”
According to NYPost, Eldon expressed that he has suffered “lifelong damage” from having his naked body plastered on the triple-diamond selling album, and claims neither he nor his guardians consented to the naked photoshoot. These claims were cited from the federal suit.
However, in 2016, Elden was the same person to pay homage to the album, recreating the shoot, expressing that:
“The anniversary means something to me. It’s strange that I did this for five minutes when I was 4 months old and it became this really iconic image.”
“I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked.’ But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts,” Elden said of the 2016 shoot.
According to an NPR report, the plunge into a pool for 15-seconds which became a symbol for grunge, occurred because Elden’s father was a friend of the photographer.
Picture: DSC records