Charles Peterson | Charles Peterson's Nirvana and We're All Pros Here

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of photography at Leica Store and Gallery Meatpacking with our electrifying Saturday Morning series, Behind the Binding!

Join us for an invigorating presentation with photographer Charles Peterson in Conversation with publisher Michelle Dunn Marsh of Minor Matters as they unravel the stories behind the making of photobooks, We're All Pros Here, and Charles Peterson's Nirvana.

Programming begins promptly at 11:00 AM.

Seating is first-come, first-served.

Following the talk, indulge in signed books with the artist!

Seating is limited, so be sure to reserve your spot in advance!

Charles Peterson's Nirvana

Charles Peterson

We're All Pros

Correspondence and texts by Michelle Dunn Marsh, Jeff Kleinsmith, and Charles Peterson

Published by Minor Matters

We're All Pros Here: Under the Covers with is a companion piece to the best-selling book released last year.

The publishing process is a mysterious one, even to those familiar with it. Exciting and laborious decisions bump up against realities of finite budgets and established timelines while still aiming to create the best end result. This book of correspondence between the photographer, editor, and art director spans the five-year evolution of the book, from Charles Peterson's initial outreach, to art director Jeff Kleinsmith's final notes before printing the limited edition jacket.
Choosing to publish this volley of emails in its entirety helps share the depth of thought and discussion that goes into seemingly inconsequential details of a book. Email as a consistent form of communication on a multi-year project is also an artifact of a generation. Using personal correspondence and conversation, each contributor found ways to work through differences of opinion with consideration and respect, a model for what communication can be in the twenty-first century.

Charles Peterson's Nirvana

For millennia, “nirvana” has been a term associated with belief systems of the Indian subcontinent. But in 1988, a band from a small coastal town in Washington state decided to create some new associations with this word . . . through their music.

Active for just six years, Nirvana left an indelible mark on the late twentieth century that remains visible today. Photographer and self-described “music fanatic” Charles Peterson, a fellow twenty-something from the suburbs of Seattle, was present with his camera as a genre took form, and his images have become synonymous with the sounds, styles, movement and attitude known as Grunge.

Charles Peterson’s Nirvana expands beyond Peterson’s iconic images of the band seen repeatedly over the last thirty years. Over a five-year photo edit, Peterson looked at each one of thousands of frames, considering what drew him to Nirvana in the first place—their music.

The resulting selection of photographs and their carefully constructed sequence mash up venues and years, suffering and the sublime, to arrive at a visual experience that one cannot help but also feel, and hear.

CHARLES PETERSON (b.1964, Longview, Washington) is internationally known for his photographs of the Seattle music scene of the late eighties and nineties. He began making photographs while a student at Bothell High School, and then went on to study photography at the University Washington, where he first met as friends many of his future subjects.

Peterson’s distinct visual style and early work for Sub Pop Records became an important signifier of the phenomenon known as grunge.

His photographs have been featured in numerous publications, as well exhibited in group and solo exhibitions around the world. They are included in many private collections, and the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum and MoPOP.

Previous books include Screaming Life (Harper Collins, 1996) Pearl Jam: Place Date (Rizzoli/Ten, 1998), Touch Me I’m Sick, Cypher((powerhouse, 2003, 2008) and Genius (Frye Art Museum, 2015).

Originally from Puyallup, WA, Michelle Dunn Marsh now considers both Seattle and New York City home. She believes that living with books is transformative, and everyone should try it. Ditto for driving a convertible, smelling a sterling rose, and wearing great cowboy boots.

She has experienced every aspect of the publishing process through staff positions with Aperture Foundation and Chronicle Books, and on a project basis with University of Washington Press, Museum of Glass, Heyday Books, Abbeville Press, and others. Leadership positions include Co-Publisher of Aperture magazine and Deputy Director of Aperture Foundation; Senior Editor of Art+Design, Chronicle Books; and executive director (2013–2019) and Chief Strategist (2019-2020) at Photographic Center Northwest.

Editor or designer of over 100 publications prior to starting Minor Matters, she has also curated a number of significant exhibitions, including Jim Marshall's The Rolling Stones 1972 at Experience Music Project, Seattle; Here I Am: Lisa Leone at the Bronx Museum; Eugene Richards: Enduring Freedom and Terminal: On Mortality and Beauty at PCNW, Seattle; and All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, which was on view in New York, Seattle, and Ellensburg, WA.

Previously a tenured professor in graphic design at Seattle Central Community College, she has lectured at Parsons/The New School, Yale University, YoungArts in Miami, The Palm Springs Photo Festival, The Seagull School for Publishing in Calcutta, and PhotoIreland, among others. She holds an MS in Publishing from Pace University in New York City, and a bachelor’s degree in literature/art history from Bard College.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Leica Camera