Photographer Chronicles Grunge Moments

Mon., Nov. 20, 1995

Fred Shuster Los Angeles Daily News

For more than a dozen years, photographer Charles Peterson chronicled the hometown music scene, which for him means Seattle.

Peterson was in the front row for the so-called grunge era, which led to multimillion sales for such Seattle bands as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

His distinctive grainy black-and-white shots showing equal parts band and audience graced numerous releases from the influential Sub-Pop label.

Now comes “Screaming Life: A Chronicle of the Seattle Music Scene” (128 pages, Harper Collins; $35), Peterson’s hardcover visual history of grunge, with text by rock writer Michael Azzerad, complete with a nine-track CD featuring obscure cuts by Nirvana, Green River, Soundgarden and others.

The book cover shows Nirvana’s late Kurt Cobain playing guitar while standing on his head in 1992.

“It was all my friends up there on stage,” Peterson, 31, said.

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