A look at Kurt Cobain’s privacy reveals his role as a loving and dedicated father. (Credits: KMazur/WireImage)
This April 5 marked 30 years since the death of Kurt Cobain, the remembered Nirvana vocalist who burst into the music scene of the 90s and changed it forever under the category of grunge. To commemorate the anniversary of his death, Family Values: Kurt, Courtney and Frances Bean, a compilation of unpublished photographs with anecdotes from the daily life of one of the families that generated the most noise in the 90s.
It is a compilation of almost 100 unpublished images taken by the photography duo Guzmán, composed of Constance Hansen and Russell Peacock. The publication reveals an intimate and little-seen side of Cobain’s family life with Courtney and his only daughter Frances Bean Cobain.
“Family Values: Kurt, Courtney and Frances Bean” was published this April 5 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the singer’s death in 2024. (Credits: powerHouse Books)
The photo session, held in the couple’s humble residence in Hollywood, broke all the stereotypes expected by Hansen and Peacock. Instead of finding a scene controlled by representatives and assistants, they found an environment full of authenticity and spontaneity.
When Courtney opened the doors of her house, the first scene the photographers saw was Kurt, still in his pajamas. “It was a normal, ordinary house. She was very modest,” Hansen recalls in an interview with Fox News. “There was no one there to control anything. “There were only the two of them.”
“You could see the love,” said Constance Hansen. The intimate life of Kurt Cobain and his family was captured by the photography duo Guzmán in 1992. (Credit: KMazur / WireImage)
For its part, Peacock stated that Kurt and Courtney were completely “in awe” of the baby and that is why the photos look so good: “They were in their little family bubble […] They were in their own little world, far from all the madness, from all the press, from the celebrity roller coaster. We captured a moment in their lives when they were at peace.”
According to what the photographers detail, the artists were “very attentive parents” to Frances Bean. “You could see the love,” said Constance Hansen and proceeded to describe Kurt Cobain, in his role as a father, with positive words: “He was very tender. He was a very tender man. Even with us, he was very gentle, very sweet. He could be reserved with us for many reasons.”
The Nirvana singer was an icon in the 90s, but Guzmán’s duo assured that he “was not aware of his own fame.” (Credits: Instagram)
As for Courtney Love, that rudeness that characterized her in her live performances with the band Hole dissipated with her husband and daughter. She had a more charming and attentive side when she received her visitors.
“Courtney was very charismatic,” the photographers said. “She knew she was charismatic. She enjoyed that part of her personality. She was brilliant and fabulous.” Meanwhile, Kurt had a harder time being this magnetic with people: “She was more subtle. She had little toys in her room.” Without a doubt, “the two were unique in the way they presented themselves.”
According to accounts provided to the press in the United States, these photographs were captured in a shoot for Spin magazine in 1992, but only five of them were published at the time. And that’s how a vast amount of genuine, everyday Cobain family moments were lost, until now.
Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were pictured in their family bubble away from fame. (Credit: Lindsay Brice/Getty Images)
It was a year after the album Nevermind became a smash hit. “Her whole life basically changed,” the photographer explained to Fox News. “They were both famous. They were very rich. But it didn’t seem like it. They had not yet realized the reality.”
The context of this specific event preceded the turbulence that Cobain and Love faced in the public eye, especially after a controversial Vanity Fair publication that questioned their ability as parents due to their drug use.
“All kinds of things happened between them and Frances Bean and the lawyers after that article,” Hansen said. “I don’t know if it had been resolved by the time we got there or whatever. But there was a lot of love in that house […] “It was their version of family values.”
A controversial article questioned Kurt and Courtney’s role as parents of Frances Bean Cobain, who is now 31 years old. (Credit: Paul Marotta/Getty Images for Sundance)
Cobain died at the age of 27 in 1994 and his death took by surprise the only two photographers with whom the Nirvana singer shared the intimacy of his family life. But, to this day, Constance Hansen highlights the fact that his music is still so popular: “There is a new generation of people listening to his music long after Kurt’s death. They keep getting something out of it. They really were talented. The lyrics were very good. “They touched lives.”
However, in these photographs you will see “a young couple, first-time parents, enjoying a brief and private moment in their lives. They were icons. But they were also human.” According to the creators of Family Values: Kurt, Courtney and Frances Bean, this compilation file aims to capture the idea that the artist had about his family: “It all comes down to love,” Hansen concluded.
Kurt Cobain, who died at the age of 27, was subjected to press scrutiny on many occasions. Now these photographs promise to give a much more intimate and human perspective of the Nirvana leader (Credit: Lindsay Brice/Getty Images)
The photographs capture moments of vulnerability, love and everyday life, offering a window into the lives of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love that until now had remained closed. From Cobain cradling his daughter in his arms to everyday family dynamics, the book promises an unprecedented look at the intimacy of one of the most discussed families in modern music.
