DNA Explainer: What is the child porn lawsuit against legendary rock band Nirvana?

American rock band Nirvana’s second album ‘Nevermind’ became one of the best-selling albums of all time. It gave the band and its lead singer, late Kurt Cobain, a special place in cultural evolution of music, helping define the tastes of the Generation X. The band’s iconic cover was considered a landmark piece of art, one that has been celebrated with re-enactments on later anniversaries of Nevermind featuring the baby boy all grown up as a teenager and later as an adult. 

Now, that little boy is a 30-year-old man, and he is suing the remaining members and assets of Nirvana over child pornography and sexual exploitation.

The baby on the cover of Nevermind

Before getting into the lawsuit, it is pertinent to know the person at the centre of it, underwater on the Nirvana Nevermind album cover.

The person on the cover and the alleged victim in the lawsuit is Spencer Elden, a model and painter. Now aged 30, Elden was a 4-month-old infant when the photograph of him on the Nirvana album cover was taken. The cover photo was digitally modified to include a US dollar currency note on a fishing hook, which the baby is seemingly trying to grab. The image was conceived as a rebuke of capitalism.

Elden has recreated the image on at least for occasions out of which two photo shoots featured him as an adult. In the latest recreation in 2016, Elden had reportedly asked if it could be an accurate representation with him naked. But the idea was shot down by the photographer.

While he’s been quoted as saying that he has had mixed emotions about the photograph that showed him as a naked toddler, this is the first time he has alleged that it should be considered child pornography.

The lawsuit against Nirvana

Elden has filed a lawsuit demanding damages as a victim of sexual exploitation and child pornography. As per the lawsuit, Elden’s lawyer alleges that the currency note added to the photograph makes the baby appear like “a sex worker.”

The lawsuit claims that a “series of sexually graphic nude photographs of Spencer” were clicked to ensure “the album cover would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer,” further stating that the photographer “activated Spencer’s ‘gag reflex’ before throwing him underwater in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencer’s exposed genitals."

It claims this was done with the aim of “enhancing and increasing the commercial success" of Nirvana Nevermind album.

The photograph shows the baby’s genitalia which the lawsuit claims caused Elden to “suffer personal injury” and “permanent harm,” which included “extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations” and interfered with the alleged victims “normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity, loss of past and future wages, past and future expenses for medical and psychological treatment, loss of enjoyment of life, and other losses.” 

The lawsuit states that no authorization was given by Elden or his guardians for using the image. As per a 1992 Entertainment Weekly report, Elden’s family was paid $250 for the photograph.

It is to be noted that "nonsexualized nude photos" of infants are generally not seen as child pornography as per the US law.