Charles Grows Up

March 29, 2007 5:08 AM

Charles Peterson Photography [Flash site]. You might recognize Charles's work from the grunge era. His photos of Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Nirvana and were an essential visual accompaniment to the noisy, grinding soundtrack of that era. Charles has moved well past the energetic black and white photos of that earlier period [previously] onto something much different.
posted by psmealey (13 comments total)

I had done a search on the main URL and found nothing so, I assembled this post. Just before posting I did a text search and found matteo's post from two years ago, and I'm embarrassed to say, completely forgetting my own heavy contributions to the thread. At any rate, since Peterson had recently relaunched his site with substantially different content, I still felt it was worthwhile and of enough interest to share and went ahead and posted it. If this qualifies as a double, I will take my pillorying in ... 3... 2... 1...
posted by psmealey at 6:24 AM on March 29, 2007

I shall refrain from pillorying at this time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:29 AM on March 29, 2007

He's a fine photographer, by the way!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:31 AM on March 29, 2007

His work has improved a great deal.
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:41 AM on March 29, 2007

I love those shots of the Humber Bridge (in the Dr Marten section)
posted by vbfg at 8:04 AM on March 29, 2007

No pillorying from me. Peterson provided the visuals to the soundtrack of my early adulthood and he's still improving himself. An excellent role model.

And the host of Mudhoney's 'Superfuzz Bigmuff' image is freakin' Walmart. I have no idea what that means, Walmart selling SubPop titles. Maybe it means I'm old and the dangerous music of my early years is now dated enough to be considered safe.
posted by ardgedee at 8:07 AM on March 29, 2007

In my mind, few photos will ever rival the loose spontaneity and strange composition of the 'Nirvana, Raji's Los Angeles, 1990' shot. Absolute magic.

But the photographer has much improved. I've sent this link along to everyone I know who is even marginally interested in photography (or web design. Awesome navigation). Thanks for the post (I missed it last time anyway)!
posted by Pecinpah at 8:29 AM on March 29, 2007

This brings back so many memories.

Hey PSmealy. Were you here back in the day when Grant Alden had the gallery on Pike? My wife and I bought several of Peterson's photos back then. We tried as best we could to keep Grant in business. But most of the "scensters" were cheap motherfuckers who loved to go to openings but never bought anything so poor Grant went out of business. He was a good guy. I miss those times.

One photo in particular is my treasure. It is of Cobain ascending off the amp at the King Theater. I love that picture so much. It's hanging right here above my computer.

i think I'm gonna buy more of Peterson's new work. But it appears he has raised his prices a might since 1993.
posted by tkchrist at 9:29 AM on March 29, 2007

Hey PSmealy. Were you here back in the day when Grant Alden had the gallery on Pike?

Yep. Vox Populi. Last I heard they were making another go of it, but haven't been in touch in a long, long time.

Incidentally, I was at the Nirvana Show at the King. it was a free show announced the day of, so a bunch of friends and I bolted early from work and waited on-line for four hours to see them. It was an all-ages/no-reentry affair, so it was the first time I had ever seen them sober. It was still fantastic.

Dude, do I know you? Grant, Jeff Kleinsmith, Charlie Cross and some other guys and I used to play basketball every Wednesday at some church gym on Broadway... I fucking miss Seattle. :-(
posted by psmealey at 9:38 AM on March 29, 2007

Sorry that Cobain photo was taken at the Motor Sports Garage. I have pictures of my own from the King Theater.
posted by tkchrist at 9:47 AM on March 29, 2007

Dude, do I know you? Grant, Jeff Kleinsmith, Charlie Cross and some other guys and I used to play basketball every Wednesday at some church gym on Broadway... I fucking miss Seattle. :-(

Probably. I was good friends with Hank Trotter and Mike (spike) Spafford - I knew Kleinsmith when he and Hank shared space. My wife did lots of design work for the Rocket. My wife was also friends with Art Chantry. AS much as one could be since he was so curmudgeonly.
posted by tkchrist at 9:51 AM on March 29, 2007

Huh. I used to work at the Rocket. And I bought a poster or two from Grant at Vox Populi.

My Nirvana live show story involves seeing them play a grange hall on Steamboat Island, right after Beat Happening and before the Melvins. No photos, unfortunately...
posted by litlnemo at 5:12 PM on March 29, 2007

Whenever a Sub Pop band played Vancouver I would be right up front, and on several occasions Charles stepped on my toes. The drawback with being right up there was Tad fell on me also, twice.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 7:02 PM on March 29, 2007