Cher y el fotógrafo argentino que convirtió su estética en una maratónica sesión de imágenes

A las diez de la mañana, Gabriel Machado recibió a Cher en el estudio y pudo dimensionar en pocas horas lo que sería una sesión?—anotó. La fecha y el espacio de trabajolich?

La singer began the encounter with references concrete. She had reviewed Machado's photographs with Dolores Fonzi, Araceli González and Natalia Oreiro, and used those images as a starting point to define the aesthetic of the new production. For the set, the team recreated stones and objects similar to those used in the campaign with Fonzi.

Una jornada que no terminó hasta la mañana siguiente

Machado recounted that the work continued from 10 a.m. until 9 a.m. the following day, without a break. Around 4 a.m., Cher left the dressing room wearing part of the wardrobe and a wig to consult the photographer before continuing. The question she asked was direct: "¿Estoy bien así?".

“Un amor”Gabriel Machado

The photographer described an artist who paid attention to every detail and treated him warmly throughout the long session. The relationship was not limited to that meeting: Machado also photographed the covers of two Cher albums, Closer to the Truth, released in 2013, and Dancing Queen, a tribute to ABBA released in 2018.

• In Closer to the Truth, Cher appears blonde, dressed in white and reclining on a bed.
• In Dancing Queen, the image shows two profiles of the artist: one with dark hair and the other blonde.

There was also a gesture that Machado still remembers with gratitude. When he and his longtime partner José Cicala needed recommendation letters for an extraordinary visa to the United States, Cher wrote a handwritten letter praising their work and describing her professional experience with them. Together they founded the Machado Cicala studio, which worked with figures such as Al Pacino, Kate Moss and John Travolta.

The stories with those artists could become long. Machado recalled a session with Kate Moss in which the model expected to meet the energetic photographer she had known on an earlier assignment. In the neighboring studio, a commercial was being filmed, and that circumstance became part of the memory of the encounter. The episode shows, once again, the careful observation that characterized Machado's relationship with the people he photographed.

From home, the lesson left by Machado's story is simple: work with references, pay attention to the details and do not lose sight of the people behind the camera. A session that begins with a review of images on social networks can end, hours later, with a cover, a letter and a professional bond that lasts beyond the day of the shoot.