One of our fave photo galleries in Sydney, Blender Gallery, has just announced Greatest Hits: Grunge by photographer Chris Cuffaro. The exhibition will run from May 2nd to June 1st and feature iconic imagery of the heroes of the 90s Grunge era including Eddie Vedder, Nirvana, Perry Farrell, Chris Cornell, Alice In Chains, L7 and loads more.
Chris Cuffaro is an esteemed music photographer who's mostly black and white imagery captures artists in captivating moments. He celebrates 30 years in the business this year and announced via his website:
"When I think of Grunge, I think of best friends, great shows, The Rocket newspaper, wet weather, Sub Pop Records, great photo shoots and most of all the amazing moments that I witnessed and shot. I look back at the photos and just smile. Coming from Los Angeles, I was an outsider to most, but everyone welcomed me and treated me like I belonged. This was a big deal for me at the time – most of these bands were my favorite bands and musical heroes.
I’m certainly no expert on the Grunge scene or Seattle – there are plenty of those in Seattle. I have my opinion on what is Grunge and what is not. I was an outsider who was welcomed into the best party ever and as always, I’ve got the photos to prove it."
This image of Perry Farrell from Jane's Addiction, dubbed "Jesus Christ Pose" shot in 1989 by Chris Cuffaro, comes with a great story as told by Blender Gallery on thier Instagram.
"I originally shot this photo for Exposure Magazine back in 1989. It was a cover shoot with Perry Farrell, the lead singer of Jane’s Addiction. We had done some portraits before we did this bed set-up. Everything was going along perfectly, Perry was great and back in those days I was shooting film, so we were going through roll after roll. We got to the last roll and I told Perry this was it, 12 shots per roll…10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and so on, I get to the last frame and say last “shot of the day Perry!” Like a crazy, unexplained moment, he just did Jesus! I shot it and knew I had something special.
The magazine ended up killing the session and asked me to do a reshoot. They wanted something a little easier, nothing too risqué. The writer and I both thought they were crazy! For fuck sake, it’s Perry Farrell! In the following years some magazines have published the photo, but what made it extra special was in 1991 I made a simple promo card out of it and mailed it to everyone I knew. One of the people to get the card was Susan Silver manager of Soundgarden. I was told that Chris Cornell saw the card and wrote the song Jesus Christ Pose inspired by my photo. I was told that the song is about this image of Perry starring at you in his Jesus Christ Pose. Fucking crazy! For me, the image, the song and the moment will always be one of my favorites. Having a song written by Chris about one of my photos is better than him writing me a love song! Fucking brilliant!"
