Photo Credit: Norman Seeff

CHER ARRIVED UNANNOUNCED AT PHOTOGRAPHER Norman Seeff’s L.A. studio for this session for her 1976 album, I’d Rather Believe in You. “Her management and I had been discussing doing a shoot,” recalls Seeff, “and she just showed up with one of her girlfriends. I assumed she was there to check me out.” Seeff seized the moment. “My strobe was set up,” he recalls. “There was just the bare floor and a backdrop—very informal.” Cher didn’t disappoint. “We ended up having a wonderful session,” says Seeff. “At one point she was down on all fours. She reminded me of a cat, shaking her head with her hair hanging over her face.” The results were stunning. “It was impossible to take a bad shot,” says Seeff. “Cher was very much herself—sexy, vivacious, stunning and a little wicked.” She just exuded creative passion that was paradoxically both calculated and spontaneous. Then suddenly she was gone and I was left wondering, ‘What just happened?’ I was enchanted.”