"One of the few shows I specifically set out to find a record cover, and I found one of my best. The band was a bit iffy about using a b&w live pic on their major label debut - they didn’t want a pretty solo pic of Chris on the cover a la Screaming Life. So I knew it had to be intense, somewhat abstract, and ‘anonymous.’ This is what I delivered to the band and they rolled with it for the Louder than Love album. It’s one of my absolute favorites." - Charles Peterson

Charles Peterson, born 1964 in Longview, Washington, is a rock photographer whose work not only captured a moment in history, but defined its look in our collective consciousness.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, a small yet vital music scene was brewing in the Pacific Northwest. A new sound, created by combining garage rock fuzz and metal riffs with scroungy punk nihilism, started to coalesce. This musical genre dubbed ‘grunge’, originally created by outsiders for outsiders, took off like a rocket and changed the musical landscape forever.

The architects of this new sound were captured from their humble beginnings to meteoric success primarily by one main photographer: Charles Peterson. Peterson’s dynamic, blurry, seemingly snapped off-the-cuff black and white photos perfectly captured the beer-soaked dynamism and raucous energy of the time. Peterson became THE guy that you wanted to photograph your band. He became Sub Pop’s unofficial house photographer and his relationships with the bands Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and more pushed Peterson’s work to global prominence.

His ability to capture not only intimate casually-cool portraits, but also the vital dynamics of the artist/audience exchange, let us relive these incredible moments of musical history.

Charles has partnered with Phosphene, a Seattle based NFT Publisher that curates regenerative NFTs that help heal the planet with powerful storytelling and sustainability in mind.