Back in 1991, an adorable naked infant became the face of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album—he was photographed swimming his way to a dollar attached to a hook. As the notable album turned 25 years old on Saturday, the original photographer tracked down the baby to refurbish the iconic portrait that swept the ’90s rock ‘n’ roll scene.
The baby is now a 25-year-old Los Angeles-based artist named Spencer Elden who, together with photographer John Chapple, re-created the underwater scene to celebrate the album’s birthday.
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At first, Elden opted to pose nude, similar to how he posed before. “I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked.’ But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts,” Elden told the New York Post.
“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,” he added.
Elden splashed into a pool at The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena, California, for the photo shoot.
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
Spencer Elden, the "Nevermind" baby at 25https://t.co/z3GLZKPsxJ pic.twitter.com/mxa7E7mLof
— Jerome Faria (@jeromefaria) September 25, 2016
The 1991 album shelters such songs as “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Lithium,” “In Bloom” and “Come as You Are.” The album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and topped Billboard charts.
This is not the first time Elden re-created the photo. In celebration of the album’s 15th anniversary, he mimicked the same portrait in the same swimming pool. Gianna Francesca Catolico