Alberto Venzago

Tina during a meditation exercise, approx. 2009 / Copyright by Alberto Venzago

Alberto Venzago is a Swiss photographer, photojournalist and filmmaker. His photo reports on topics ranging from organised crime in Japan to the revolution in Iran have received international recognition and have been published in magazines such as Life, The Sunday Times, Stern and Geo. In the five decades of his work, the photographer has not only traced foreign worlds, but also portrayed numerous famous musicians, actors, painters and sportsmen like Mick Jagger, Sting, Andy Warhol and Peter Lindbergh.

He also shared an encounter with Tina Turner, with whom he has been friends for a long time. He once photographed her during a meditation exercise between two mantras, where he hardly dared to use the camera and was afraid of destroying the moment of her absorption with the loud clack of the Hasselblad he was using at the time. Today, this is his favourite picture of Tina Turner. She didn't like it and thought it made her look dead. Years later, Tina came to Alberto’s gallery and told him that she now realised how much life there was in the photo and that she like it now. Then she signed it with the words: 'To my love Alberto'. 

Beside very private pictures from Tina like from her birthday parties, never released to the public, Alberto Venzago also photographed Tina, Regula and Dechen for the booklet and promotional pictures for the first Beyond album in 2009 and it’s successor Children Beyond in 2011. Also the pictures from Tina’s acceptance speech for her Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2021 were photographed by him.