“I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked’,” says the now 27-year-old Spencer Elden. “But he thought that would be weird.”
Nirvana’s Nevermind turned 27 years old and with that anniversary, we’re reminded that the naked baby from the cover is still alive and also, miraculously, 27 years old.
Spencer Elden, now an artist working in L.A., bubbles up every few years, it seems, to recreate the image and stretch his fifteen minutes a few seconds longer.
Earlier this month, Photographer John Chapple paid him $200 — the same price photographer Kirk Weddle paid Elden’s parents in 1991 — to hop into a lap pool at The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena and re-enact the iconic pose (for some reason without the dollar bill this time).
“I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked,’” Elden told the New York Post. “But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts.” He previously told The Guardian: “Sooner or later, I want to create a print of a real-deal re-enactment shot, completely naked.” We get it dude, your weiner is 27 years older, too.
In 2003, he told Rolling Stone, “Every five years or so, somebody’s gonna call me up and ask me about Nevermind … and I’m probably gonna get some money from it.” So it seems like we’re stuck with the guy. With the life expectancy of the average American male currently at about 77 years, Elden will likely have plenty more chances to expose his mature wee-wee to you and the world.
Take a look at some of the remakes below. It’s like grunge’s own shitty Up series.
