Rob Lundberg Presents “Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews” EP #8 with Photographer Charles Peterson

A man of many talents, Robert Lundberg is a well-regarded photographer and filmmaker known for his artful documentaries covering the worlds of music, comedy, art, and film. Spending his youth in Massachusetts, Lundberg eventually moved to New York City to fully invest himself in his career in art and film. An individual who loves to take on new challenges, Lundberg has immersed himself in perhaps his most challenging project yet, the new documentary series titled Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews.

Debuting in February, the series follows comedians, musicians, fine artists, and actors in an effort to gain an inside look at their creative process which can only be fully captured going behind the scenes. The purpose of the series is to offer an intimate look into all of the rarely seen or known “little things” that transpire during interviews and other similar encounters with artists and performers. Oftentimes, most other features are heavily edited, capturing certain moments often heavily vetted by those in charge of the content’s creation or final product. But that’s not in Lundberg’s nature. He makes sure to bring you all of the raw, authentic moments that you would never otherwise get a chance to experience and enjoy.

The end of May has arrived and here we are with another new episode of  Rob Lundberg Presents: Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews. For episode eight, Lundberg is joined by American photographer Charles Peterson, best known for his collaborations with the legendary Seattle indie record label Sub Pop. While the Seattle scene and grunge rock were slowly starting to explode, Peterson was there to capture the emergence of it all with his now vintage images of those we now view as popular music legends. Most notably, many of Peterson’s photos were been featured in the 2006 film Kurt Cobain: About a Son. While we all look back in awe at the legend and the mystique of the grunge rock movement, Peterson was there to observe it all firsthand, depicting the rise of the burgeoning underground music scene in the Pacific Northwest that was taking shape in the late 1980s.

As a photographer, he is known for his full-frame, non-cropped images which makes his photos unmistakably Charles Peterson photos. He first got interested in photography when as a boy he would stand by and observe his uncle develop film. By high school he was contributing photos to the school newspaper and yearbook and a cult following was already starting to take shape. His approach to photography was to make the viewer actually feel like they were actually there by not just getting a headshot, but grabbing full-body, wide-angle shots of performers that are at times blurred and black and white. While he doesn’t photograph many bands anymore, Peterson keeps active with his photography while still living in Seattle. If you’d like to check out some more frequent examples of his work, you can visit Peterson’s official Instagram page.

Charles Peterson by Robert Lundberg

Commenting on his chat with Peterson, Lundberg said, “In the realms of culture, there are moments in time when special culminations of energies combine into a movement, that will shift the foundations of what was, and surpass what we knew could exist. This has particularly been the case when it comes to contemporary musical revolutions, sounds that forever defined a young generation seeking ownership of a unique voice.

This was the case, in Seattle, Washington, in the decade spanning from the mid to late ‘80s into the mid ‘90s. A strange new sound, was seeping out of this far Northwest city. Like all great photographers Charles Peterson found himself being led by his passion for lens, and as such, chance and circumstance placed him in the middle of a musical revolution that swept the nation. I had the honour to sit down with Charles to not only discuss his historical works capturing grunge icons, but also photographic techniques, and more importantly how he has evolved from those heady grunge days, into a father and fine artist.”

Lundberg has many more meetings planned with acclaimed artists who have agreed to be participants in Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews in the coming weeks and months. Lundberg has already been bringing you his ongoing series Uncontaminated Sound which takes a look behind the scenes to get a look at performers before they take the stage. The series has featured Macklemore’s Gemini Tour featuring Eric Nally (formerly of Foxy Shazam) and Xperience, Louie Anderson, Sinbad, Ron English, We Are Scientists, Rufus Wainwright and more. Lundberg’s photography has been highlighted in publications such as Huffington Post, Paste Magazine and more.