NIRVANA As Shot By Angie Rodriguez

I was, and still am, an avid fan of NIRVANA since way back, to a time long ago when they were a little known band, who would play alongside such bands as Dinosaur Jr. at small event spaces, before and during the era of the album BLEACH. not knowing then, that they would be the band that would change the music scene and lifestyle forever, but I had a feeling something big was in store for Kurt, Dave and Shaggy, I just did not know how big yet..

I received a call one night from an talent agency who obtained my phone number from a friend, they wanted to know if I would like to be in a new Nirvana video that was shooting the next day, there would be no pay, but it was Nirvana after all, how could I possibly say “NO” to that? I arrived at Culver Studios the next day and found out that the video was for a new song called “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, there were a lot of other fans there, since the whole video was shot with fans, all who agreed to work for the day for no payment of any kind, the payment was being part of the historical video that brought “Alternative music” into the light from behind the dark shadows it had once lurked, now it would be a household name and term.

We began to shoot early that morning, and by the end of hearing the playback 100 times we all knew the song by heart by noon, for most people who have never worked in the film industry the days are extremely long, usually 12 to 14 hours, but by the 8th or 9th hour, most of the other kids were hungry and losing interest and many began to leave, not being willing to wait any longer, however a few of us die hard fans stayed, and I was just lucky enought to be at the right place at the right time.

The director came out during a break and was pleading with people to stay, and I mentioned that I would love to stay if he did me a favor in return, that favor was granted and I was allowed to run to my car and grab my brand new PENTAX K1000 camera and a few rolls of film, (the first rolls of film I ever shot) and while hanging out with the band, I began to take pics, these would be some of the most iconic photos of the band ever shot, on the day they made one of the most famous videos of all time, and would place me in the annals of rock history forever.

I kept these photos and the negatives locked away, never having them seen by the world until sadly, in 1991 Cobain would die an infamous and untimely death, and I offered them to The LA WEEKLY after they promised to not write anything negative about him in return for using my photo. Unbeknownst to me, I would end up with my photo on the cover.

I have since had these photos appear on T-shirts in a collab with Slick of Dissizit, as well as shown at art shoes and galleries, I am grateful to have been in a position to take them, on a day I will remember forever.

At my printers signing my limited edition triptych. There are only 3 sets of these in existence and 2 are still available for purchase. If interested please contact us through our email system on the site.