As Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Turns 20, Album Photographer Wants Reunion

That famous Nirvana baby may be all grown up, but he can still have his old job back if he wants it.

For the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, the seminal rock record from Nirvana that catapulted the Seattle grunge band to super stardom, the photographer behind the album’s iconic cover wants to reunite with its naked swimming baby.

Kirk Weddle snapped the startling image of an infant in a swimming pool for the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album, and now he wants to recreate the image with the same kid. Except now that kid, Spencer Elden, is an adult.

“Now that Spencer’s old enough, I’d like to shoot him swimming nude again,” Weddle said.

The story behind the cover image has become part of the legend surrounding the album. Conceived by singer Kurt Cobain while watching a documentary on water births, the idea was passed on to Weddle after stock photography of babies proved too expensive. Renata and Rick Elden eventually agreed to let their son Spencer be photographed underwater for a flat fee of $200.

While Weddle was able to find a way around the cost, little Spencer’s budding manhood was another matter. Record label Geffen created an alternate cover for the album out of fears that the child’s penis would offend people, prompting Cobain to say that the only way he would compromise would be to put a sticker over the offending body part with the words “If you are offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.”

Needless to say, Geffen caved and the photo remained. To this day the album and the image have sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

Elden, who now works for a street art and viral marketing company in Los Angeles, agreed to pose for a recreation of the image in Rolling Stone for the album’s tenth anniversary in 2001. Thankfully he kept his clothes on this time around.