Tina Turner’s decades-long career took her around the world to stages of all sizes. She was known for her incredible voice, hypnotizing dance moves and stunning ensembles.
And while fans around the world might feel as though they knew the superstar, no one captured her essence — the “real Tina,” as her husband Erwin Bach puts it — quite like photographer Peter Lindbergh.
The two first met in the late 1980s, when Lindbergh photographed Turner for Italian Vogue, Lindbergh’s son, Benjamin Lindbergh recalls to PEOPLE. For the shoot, Turner wore clothing by Azzedine Alaïa who was a mutual friend — “In fact, I believe it was Azzedine who first introduced them,” Benjamin says.
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Peter and Turner worked together several times and remained in contact until his death in 2019. Their longtime friendship and mutual admiration are on display throughout the pages of the new book Tina Turner by Peter Lindbergh that features dozens of photos of the singer — many that have never before been released to the public.
“[Peter] let her be exactly who she was: radiant, powerful, vulnerable. That trust between them brought out something very real and tender,” Benjamin says of their work together.
Their pair’s last meeting came in 2016, when the photographer visited Turner and Bach at their home in Switzerland.
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“During his visit, we had dinner on the terrace and entertained each other with stories about the old days. Tina and Peter rubbed shoulders as we talked and laughed — good friends, enjoying each other’s company, as we always did,” Bach writes in the foreword of the new book.
“Even if they didn’t speak regularly … the bond was very much alive,” says Benjamin, who is now the president of the Peter Lindbergh Foundation, of his father and Turner, who died in 2023. “I know Peter held that friendship close to his heart until the end.”
Read on to see some of the stunning images featured in Tina Turner by Peter Lindbergh.
Signature Smile
“Tina’s strength was the kind that came from survival and grace,” Benjamin tells PEOPLE. “She had lived through so much and still radiated joy. Peter was fascinated by authenticity, and Tina never put on a mask — even as a global icon.”
Joy certainly radiated out of the star in this image captured in one of their earlier shoots together in Deauville, France in 1989.
Special Look
In a behind-the-scenes look at Turner, Peter captured the eight-time Grammy winner curling her own hair during a shoot in L.A. in 1993.
“Peter had a way of making people feel seen — not as celebrities, but as human beings,” Benjamin says.
No Fear
And of course, it would be impossible to forget the iconic photos Lindbergh took of Turner posing on top of the Eiffel Tower in 1990. In this one, Turner looks as carefree as ever, holding one arm up behind her head while the other clings on to the frame of the iconic structure. And in heels, no less!
“There she is, her head thrown back as she perches daringly on the Eiffel Tower with all of Paris at her feet,” Bach writes.
Ear to Ear
Turner floated above the ground — with an happy grin on her face — at Paramount Studios in Hollywood in 1996.
“She was powerful without being performative, beautiful without being conventional. For Peter, she embodied what he valued most: rawness, elegance and soul,” Benjamin says.
Sole Silhouette
As Bach points out in the introduction to the book, some of the images included in the book don’t feature Turner’s face at all — but they’re still so very her.
“In yet another [photo], only her hands and knees are visible — but her hands and knees are so expressive they could belong to only Tina,” Bach writes.
This image, also taken in 1996 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, shows just her legs and heeled feet racing ahead of her shadow.
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