Peter Lindbergh
Tina & Peter at the opening of his exhibition in Rotterdam, 2016
Peter Lindbergh was a German fashion photographer and film director. He portrayed models like Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford, made several films, and created covers for music including Sheryl Crow, Beyoncé and Tina Turner's seventh solo album Foreign Affair in 1989. He was also responsible for her Missing You music video, which was as well used for a Hanes commercial.
Lindbergh preferred black & white photography and his work has been presented at international exhibitions. He also collaborated with the Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa, reflected in the book Azzedine Peter Alaia Lindbergh. Both shared the same criteria on beauty and aesthetics, loving the color black and the role of freedom.
In 2016, Tina visited the opening of his exhibition in Rotterdam, where he presented among others the iconic picture from Tina climbing the Eiffel Tower in high heels, used for the cover of the Foreign Affair single. Beside of this cover picture, Peter was also responsible for the center page picture for the soundtrack album What’s Love Got To Do With It in 1993 and nearly all pictues for the album Wildest Dreams in 1996.
When Tina Turner scaled the Eiffel Tower in 1989, she clasped the side with one hand and smirked into the barrel of Peter Lindbergh’s camera. She looked like a superhuman – legs astride and body-bound in a high-slit Azzedine Alaïa mini dress. Peter told her she could put the heels on after she had climbed the tower, but she just replied, ‘You must be kidding.’ The relationship between Alaïa and Lindbergh was the stuff of fashion folklore, a cauldron of adrenaline and glitz and stretch fabrics that came to a crackle when Turner stepped into the frame. Her ferocious presence – all leather and lace and short, short dresses – codified what it meant to be a modern pop star.
Tina about Peter:
„Peter had a unique ability to capture all sides of me - the woman the child, the prankster, the seeker, the true believer.”
Peter Lindbergh:
„For me every photograph is a portrait; you are photographing a relationship with the person you are shooting; there is an exchange, and that's what the picture is.“
