20 Astonishing Old Photos of Donna Summer, the First Lady of Love

With her honeyed voice, huge, doe eyes, and tumbling raven curls, Donna Summer was a pop-culture presence nonpareil, producing an improbable number of disco and R&B hits in the 1970s and 1980s. (“I Feel Love,” “Last Dance,” “Heaven Knows,” “Bad Girls,” “Hot Stuff,” “On the Radio”…the list goes on and on.) Yet behind the sexy persona and 10-minute dance mixes was a fiercely private mother of three girls; a survivor of sexual and physical abuse; and an irrepressible, agenda-setting artist who did, in fact, work very hard for the money.

Summer’s riveting story—from her difficult childhood in Boston, where she eagerly sang in church, to her early break in Germany, hard-won success in the American disco scene, late-career controversies, and fatal battle with lung cancer—is the subject of a new HBO documentary, Love to Love You, Donna Summer. Directed by Roger Ross Williams and Summer’s daughter Brooklyn Sudano, it combines extensive home videos and concert footage with intimate new interviews, primarily with members of Summer’s immediate family, painting a textured portrait of a complicated star.

Here, ahead of the film’s May 20 premiere, Vogue pays tribute to Summer’s iconic career in 20 vintage snapshots.