As you know, Warhol had promised a 15-minute of fame for everyone in the future, but some of us really want these 15 minutes to last. Personally, I think you have to be crazy to want to be famous but it’s just me! I am not sure what Spencer Elden wants, but he got famous when he was 4 months old and he is still talking about it. Spencer is the swimming baby on the cover of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, and he gave an interview to the Guardian telling the story behind the very famous photo:
‘My mum has a crazy story. When she was young, she says she had some sort of vision that her baby was going to be everywhere. She started having my picture taken as a baby and giving it away as fridge magnets to friends. And then this Nirvana album cover happened and my picture was everywhere on billboards. ‘Never mind’ sold 3m copies by the time I was one.
I don’t think my parents really gave my taking part in this shoot too much thought. They knew who Nirvana were, but weren’t really into the grunge scene. I was four months old and my dad was attending art school at the time, and his friends would often ask for help with their projects. So his friend the photographer Kirk Weddle called him and said, “Do you want to make some money today and throw your kid in the pool?” And he agreed. My parents took me down there, apparently they blew in my face to stimulate my gag reflex, dunked me in, took some pictures, and pulled me out. And that was it. They were paid $200 and went to eat tacos afterwards. No big deal.’
$200 when you think that the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide? It is surreal, ‘I am glad they chose me’, added Spencer. ‘And I am also glad it wasn’t for something like a Backstreet Boys album.’
Sure, being on the cover of such an iconic album is a big plus on your resume, and Spencer has used it a lot, according to Stereogum he has recreated the famous cover in 2001, 2003 and 2008, in a very Boyhood style. Look, the guy had absolutely not his say in the making of the original picture, but this has pursued him all his life, and for the best it seems:
‘It is a weird thing to get my head around, being part of such a culturally iconic image. But it’s always been a positive thing and opened doors for me.’
I totally believe this, first his love life seems to be going just all right: ‘It helps with girls, too. Sometimes girls chat me up about it more than the other way around. I don’t tell them it’s me, and my friends boast about it more than I do. I would never go up to anyone wearing a Nirvana T-shirt and say, “Hey, that’s me”, but I was once recognized on a bridge in Venice when I was there for the Biennale. An Italian guy stopped me and said, “You’re the Nirvana baby!” which I thought was the craziest thing. I don’t know how anyone would recognize me.’
May be these recreated pictures helped a bit? He is now an artist working with Shepard Fairey, and again the Nirvana baby image didn’t spoiled anything: ‘He is a huge music connoisseur: when he heard I was the Nirvana baby, he thought that was really cool.’
Stereogum made fun of him a little bit, because of his Guardian interview and his will to stretch his moment of fame, but it’s not as if he had made tons of money of it, although this last idea may push the Nirvana baby stuff a bit too much:
‘I might have one of the most famous penises in the music industry, but no one would ever know that to look at me. Sooner or later, I want to create a print of a real-deal re-enactment shot, completely naked. Why not? I think it would be fun.’
If he really does it, he will definitively cross the line between remembrance of a cool picture and total exploitation of a 15-minute of fame.