In July of 1993, photographer Jesse Frohman was asked to shoot Nirvana for an article in the London Observer on the occasion of the band’s newest album, In Utero. The resulting photos have become an important historical record of a band at its cultural peak, and of its frontman, Kurt Cobain, who died almost ten months later. The photographs are some of the most enduring ever taken of the rock star. All the hallmarks of grunge and Kurt’s particular sensibility are there: his Jackie O sunglasses, the chipped paint on his fingernails, the patched jeans, and, most of all, his iconoclastic vulnerability. Frohman has recently released the photos in a new monograph, Kurt Cobain: The Last Session. Here, he shares a few of the images from the book and his memories of the shoot.

What is it about these photographs that have made them so enduring?

They carry such a telling story of a character, almost as if he’s an anti-superhero. How he’s dressed, and how he’s depicted, as if he is hanging from a hanger in the closet—it’s not just a get-up, not a typical rock outfit. He’s some kind of crazy superstar but it feels so authentic, and that in turn has resonated across generations and cultures and interests. These pictures have influenced a lot of people in fashion—Marc Jacobs bought the first print and he’s a big fan of these pictures and it helped influence his early interest in grunge. Kurt was a great influencer, and not in a costumed way.

The simplicity of the pictures as well. Sometimes I try to not do too much and not to over-direct, each shoot is unique, and I let the person just be. Some of the strongest pictures here are quiet, with gentle direction. There’s a contradictory energy—sometimes they’re sad, sometimes they are very silly. There is a complexity to this portrait even without seeing his eyes behind those sunglasses.

What was his relationship like to the camera?

It seemed a bit of everything. I think he was really aware of what he was doing, but in a way, couldn’t care less. He was very stoned, so that helped in releasing any inhibitions he might have had, and he clearly didn’t care too much about the vanity of the pictures. He was aware of the presence of a camera, he knew he was performing, and yet he was extremely revealing and telling. You could say he certainly wasn’t insecure, and a lot of that comes from his uncaring nature of media.

In addition to the studio shots, you also photographed the band rehearsing for their Roseland Ballroom show that evening. What was that like?

It’s refreshing to know that someone would just hop in a passenger van, like we did, to go to the venue and be satisfied. The rehearsal was a typical rehearsal—they didn’t perform particularly well that night but the rehearsal went fine, and they seemed to be a pretty seamless act, having been on tour for a while. I was excited because it was not a concert atmosphere, it was intimate, and I was on the stage with them, so I like those pictures much more than the concert photos in a way. I was planning on shooting more after the rehearsal, but we never had that moment afterwards.

Do you remember anything particular that Kurt said to you during the shoot?

I don’t remember much of the conversation while we were shooting, it was more a typical conversation. We had a couple people in common so we talked about them. One thing that stood out the most was when I first met him—and he arrived three and a half hours late—he said, “Hi, do you have a bucket?” And I said, “Sure we have a bucket.” “Because I think I’m going to puke,” he said. That definitely made an impression. I had heard that he had ODed that night, or the morning before. Fortunately he didn’t puke.

He was very quiet, we talked a lot, but he seemed to be a quiet guy, and not always a serious person. To me, he’s both, a serious introverted artist and a bit of a prankster.

How did the band seem to get along?

I think they got along great, they liked to have fun together and that was an important part of being on the road. I think Kurt has clearly had his own life apart from the band, and that was evidenced from him showing up later than the two guys, but it was nice to see them together, they seemed to enjoy each other.

How long was the shoot?

We planned for five hours, but because Kurt was late, we only had a half-hour. And when we went to the rehearsal space at Roseland, we had all that time, but I didn’t shoot that much there.

Has celebrity and rock star photography changed over the years?

You ask the photographers that photographed actors and musicians in the fifties and sixties and they would spend a week with the artists, especially the musicians. Ask Annie Leibovitz, they would just walk backstage, and if they didn’t already know the Rolling Stones, then they’d say, “Hi I’m Jim Marshall.” And you’d end up on tour with them. That’s how many memorable photos are done and now it’s so difficult, you have to be a star photographer to shoot a star, and it’s all controlled, it has to go by the publicist, everything down to every garment is managed, and that’s unfortunate.

This shoot with Nirvana was still a time when things were a little more raw and more available, granted we did have to schedule it and they did have a manager there. But there wasn’t the control. There was no stylist or hair or anything.

What have these photos meant to you in your life?

It’s kind of funny because I am really very proud of the pictures. I think they are some of the stronger portraits I have taken. And I saw Bert Stern a few years ago before he died; I said, Kurt is going to become my Marilyn [referencing Stern’s famous last sitting for Vogue with Marilyn Monroe]. He said, “No it’s not, no subject could become Marilyn.” But it is true that I’m becoming known to people as the photographer that shot Kurt.

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