Nirvana's first-ever cover shoot for a national magazine, with Spin magazine in January 1992, is now the subject of an auction that will take place this Friday and Saturday (June 19th and 20th).
The photo shoot took place just months after the release of Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind, with the Seattle trio's LP knocking Michael Jackson's Dangerous album off the top of the Billboard chart and setting off a cultural phenomenon.
The complete set of 100 negatives from the shoot, including color and black-and-white published photos and outtakes, are going on the block this weekend. Also included are the original contact sheets, signed analog gallery prints, the camera used for the shoot, additional copies of the magazine, and full copyright transfer and ownership of all images provided by photographer Greg Watermann.
The auction, held by Julien’s in Beverly Hills, will also feature Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, valued at $1 million. Cobain used the acoustic-electric guitar on Nirvana's legendary MTV Unplugged episode.
Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic told us a while back that he finds aspects of the fascination with his former bandmate unsettling: “There's a cult that's developed around the media perception of the person, Kurt Cobain, which has nothing to do with the person I knew (laughs). You know, it's a cult of personality, the cult of celebrity. Nirvana really impacted a lot of people and connected with a lot of people, and when you deal with things on that level, it's very positive, but there's some negative aspects of it too, like, you know, just obsession.”
