Charles Peterson’s grainy, blurred, black-and-white photography may have defined the early grunge aesthetic, but as the ‘Seattle sound’ exploded globally, no photographer got closer to the scene’s key players than Londoner Steve Gullick during his time with the now-defunct ‘inkies’ Sounds and Melody Maker.
Gullick first shot a wide-eyed Nirvana in August ’91, one month ahead of the release of Nevermind, initiating a friendship which led him to gain intimate access to Kurt Cobain, even as the fast-rising band sought to keep an increasingly ravenous media at arm’s length.
Fleshed out with striking portraits of the ‘alternative’ scene’s principal cast members (Hole, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Mudhoney, etc), this beautifully produced 196-page book is a vivid document of a tumultuous time in rock history, perfectly capturing the vulnerability, intensity and escalating bemusement of punk rock musicians who truly never expected to amount to anything./o:p
