In 1989, Tina Turner stunned the world by climbing the Eiffel Tower in heels for a daring photoshoot with photographer Peter Lindbergh. Suspended high above Paris, with no visible safety gear, Tina posed confidently on the iron beams, turning fear into art. The shoot captured her fearless spirit and later became iconic imagery for her Foreign Affair album.
Turner wore a shimmering haute couture dress created by iconic Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa. Photographer Peter Lindbergh famously suggested she climb the tower barefoot and let him edit her heels into the frame later to ensure her safety. Turner flatly refused, and proceeded to scale the structure in her signature high heels.
True to Lindbergh’s signature vérité street-photography style, the shoot was entirely authentic. No harnesses, wires, or safety nets were utilized during the session. He later recalled: “We worked a lot together, and it was very easy to do outstanding pictures with her. And then she did an album called Foreign Affair and then we said, ‘Well, why don’t you be in the Eiffel Tower for that?’ We went up on the Eiffel Tower, did no tricks, no nothing, and she climbed in the thing, and we said, ‘You know, we can try to put your heels after, Tina’ and she said, ‘You must be kidding.’”
While the image appears as though Turner is hanging precariously hundreds of feet in the air, the extreme perspective was achieved through clever camera positioning. Lindbergh used a forced-perspective technique. Turner was actually safely positioned just a few feet above a lower structural platform, meaning a fall would not have been fatal, despite how terrifying the final composition looks.
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