By Variety
LOS ANGELES - Spencer Elden, the man who starred on the cover of the Nirvana
Nevermind
album
as a baby - one of the most famous albums in rock history and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. She filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that her nude image constituted child pornography.
The album cover, released in September 1991, shows Elden naked under the water of a swimming pool as he enthusiastically dives for a dollar bill hooked on a hook that was added digitally.
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The image has been interpreted as a critique of capitalism.
Non-sexualized nude baby photos are generally not considered child pornography under the law.
However, Robert Y. Lewis, Elden's attorney, offers an unusual interpretation of the image to argue that it crosses the line into child pornography, writing that the inclusion of the bill in the image makes the baby look like "a sex worker. ".
"The defendants intentionally marketed Spencer's child pornography and took advantage of the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at their expense," reads the lawsuit, filed in California's Central District Court. from the US and obtained by Variety.
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"The defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly used in the music industry to get attention, in which album covers featured children in a sexually provocative way to gain notoriety, drive sales, and attract media attention and criticism. "
Nirvana album cover 'Nevermind', released September 1991 Nirvana / Nirvana album cover 'Nevermind'
The plaintiff - who, like the
Nevermind
album
is 30 years old - is claiming at least $ 150,000 from each of the defendants, including surviving band members, drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic;
Courtney Love, executor of the estate of Kurt Cobain, leader of Nirvana;
Guy Oseary and Heather Parry, Cobain Property Managers;
photographer Kirk Weddle;
art director Robert Fisher;
and various existing or defunct record companies that released or distributed the album in the last three decades.
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Interestingly, the band's original drummer, Chad Channing, is also accused of being part of the group at the time, even though he had been replaced by Grohl in 1990, before the album was recorded or the photograph taken of. The cover.
Elden has repeatedly recreated the pose as a teenager and adult, diving into pools to pose (wearing a swimsuit) to mark the album's 10, 17, 20 and 25 anniversaries.
However, in most of the interviews that accompany these photoshoots, he expressed deeply mixed feelings about being famous for the Nevermind cover and whether he was exploited by it.
Until now, despite his constant ambivalence about the photo's legacy, he had not described it as pornographic.
What was a constant, both in the past and now, is that Elden has said that he was never compensated for the photo beyond the $ 200 they paid his parents on the day of the shoot.
Cover of Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album at Loading Bay Gallery in London, England on September 13, 2011.Samir Hussein / Getty Images
In previous interviews, he said he tried to contact Grohl and Novoselic in a friendly way, but never got a response.
A possibly new argument in the lawsuit is that Elden's parents did not even sign documents allowing the image to be used.
"Neither Spencer nor his legal guardians signed an authorization for the use of images of Spencer or his likeness, and certainly not commercial child pornography depicting him," the lawsuit read.
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The document references some famous or infamous moments in rock album art history: "The concept and creation of this image reproduced earlier controversial campaigns used to promote music with sexually explicit material depicting a child or directly child pornography, including album covers for Scorpion
Virgin Killer
,
Blind Faith
by Blind Faith and
Balance
by Van Halen. "
In 2016, the last time Spencer recreated the pose as an adult, he told the New York Post: "The anniversary means something to me. It's weird that I did that for five minutes when I was 4 months old and it turned into an iconic image. It's great. , but I miss being part of something so important that I don't even remember, "he said.
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In 2008, Spencer's father, Rick, related to NPR how the proposal had gotten to them.
Their friend Weddle, the photographer in the picture, called out, 'Hey Rick, do you want to make $ 200? "Recalled the father.' I'm photographing kids this week, why don't you meet me at the Rose Bowl ".
The family didn't think about that photo shoot again until, three months later, they saw an enlargement of the cover on the Tower Records wall on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. "Two months later Geffen Records - the record company that released the record through subsidiary DGC Records - sent Spencer Elden, one year old, a platinum album and a teddy bear," notes NPR.