Kurt Cobain
December 31, 1993
Oakland Coliseum Arena
Photography by Steve Jennings

This moody photo was captured by BGP staff photographer Steve Jennings on the eve of 1994, already well after Nirvana had blown up the radio airwaves, MTV, and an entire generation of disaffected youth with their brand of what was quickly called Grunge. Nirvana had just released their third album, the Steve Albini produced, In Utero, an unsettling portrait of what would be Nirvana’s final studio stamp.The charismatic but haunted frontman Kurt Cobain would only have a few months to live after this photo was taken, but that angst isn’t necessarily captured in this shot. Rather, Cobain looks like a rock star caught in a shaft of light from what was probably overblown arena lighting… a weird incongruity when thinking about Nirvana’s bleak and volatile music.

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