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Frohman Photos Highlight 'Kurt Cobain: The Last Session' Share This on LinkedIn   Share This on Google   Tweet This   Forward This

22 September 2014

In July 1993, Nirvana was in New York City to play the Roseland Ballroom and promote their new album In Utero when Jesse Frohman scored a photo session with Kurt Cobain at the same time that punk historian Jon Savage was interviewing him for an article in the London Observer.

It was one of the last photo shoots Nirvana ever did and among the last interviews Cobain ever gave.

In Kurt Cobain: The Last Session, Frohman has republished those images and many previously unpublished ones as well, capturing "a goofily provocative rebel, with his vintage air force cap, Jackie O. sunglasses and leopard jacket." Savage's interview reveals "an optimistic side of Cobain seemingly at odds with his public image and particularly poignant as we look back on his life."

And new commentary from Frohman and Savage reveals what was going on behind the scenes that day and an essay by pop culture maven Glenn O'Brien explores what Cobain and Nirvana meant then and what their legacy is.

The 144-page hardcover features 90 illustrations, 25 of which are in color, and will be released on Nov. 1.

'Kurt Cobain: The Last Session' captures the iconic artist at a critical moment in his life and career in new, photographic, cultural time capsule book

From acclaimed photographer Jesse Frohman, Kurt Cobain: The Last Session is an experiential book that combines over a hundred of Frohman's photographs, many of which helped define Cobain's legacy-with revealing commentary and insights from two of pop culture's finest literary iconoclasts, writers Jon Savage (England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock) and Glenn O'Brien (author of books on style and contributor to monographs on Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and other artists).

In July 1993, Nirvana was the biggest band in the country and Kurt Cobain was subject to an unprecedented, unasked-for level of fame and public scrutiny. In New York City to play the Roseland Ballroom and promote their new album In Utero, Nirvana consented to be photographed by Jesse Frohman -- and Cobain gave a candid interview to punk historian Jon Savage for an article in the London Observer. No one involved could know that less than a year later, Cobain would be dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

It was one of the last photo shoots Nirvana ever did and among the last interviews Cobain ever gave. Here, 20 years after his death, they're republished in full, including previously unpublished material, and bear witness to a pivotal moment in the history of rock'n'roll. New commentary from Frohman and Savage reveals what was going on behind the scenes that day and an essay by pop culture maven Glenn O'Brien explores what Cobain and Nirvana meant to us then and what their legacy will be.

Frohman's insightful portraiture transcends the nature of celebrity photography. The pictures are as humanizing as they are glorifying. Cobain appears as a goofily provocative rebel, with his vintage air force cap, Jackie O. sunglasses and leopard jacket, while revealing a more depressing side of the life of a great artist dependent on drugs.

Within the pages of Kurt Cobain: The Last Session, we see Cobain as he was just months before his death, by turns feral and refined, alone and goofing around with his band-mates, engrossed in his music and always ambivalent about the spotlight. Savage's interview reveals an optimistic side of Cobain seemingly at odds with his public image and particularly poignant as we look back on his life.

About the Author and Contributors

Jesse Frohman is a New York-based photographer who has photographed a wide array of celebrities, including James Brown, Woody Allen, Diane Von Furstenberg, Philip Johnson, John Updike, The Strokes and Josh Brolin, among others. His work has been featured in magazines as diverse as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, V Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Interview, Rolling Stone and Spin. Frohman's body of work is highly sought after and has appeared in private collections, museum collections (including the Museum of Modern Art and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC) and in exhibitions in New York, Paris, Tokyo and Moscow.

Jon Savage is a journalist and the author of England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock and Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture.

Glenn O'Brien is a writer, editor and creative director. He has published books on style and monographs of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and other artists. He has written for a range of publications, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.


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