Best remembered as the visual chronicler of the Seattle grunge explosion, rarely has one photographer been so closely identified with one particular time and place in rock history as Charles Peterson.
Like plaid shirts and fuzz pedals, Peterson’s images perfectly capture Seattle’s late 80s/early 90s golden age. As the scene spectacularly mushroomed from a local happening to an international phenomenon, Peterson was on the front line working as a oneman photo agency busy capturing images that would later attain iconic status on both sides of the Atlantic. His distinctively high-contrast, black-and-white photos not only capture a moment, they also act as the perfect visual shorthand for the style, spirit and attitude of a long-gone era.
In addition to Seattle’s big four of Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, Peterson’s subjects include Hole, Girl Trouble, Beat Happening and L7, plus out-oftowners Black Flag, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth and Henry Rollins. The images come interspersed with a selection of excerpts from period fanzines including Your Flesh, Forced Exposure and Chemical Imbalance, plus an introduction from Eddie Vedder.
