Those violet eyes. That tiny waist. All those baubles, and the marriages. To say that Dame Elizabeth Taylor has been noticed by the press over her half-century career is an understatement. But there once was a thrilling—albeit short—period when this Academy Award–winning actress was freed from the attentions of Hollywood gossip columnists and the shutters of the paparazzi—ironically, in a country where most personal freedoms are now stifled. And it was all captured by a young artist she met by chance.

Iranian-born photographer Firooz Zahedi was an art student in his 20s when he met Taylor in Washington, D.C., through his cousin Ardeshir Zahedi, Iran’s ambassador to the United States in the mid-1970s and the then companion of Ms. Taylor. “I was calling into art school saying, ‘I’m sick,’” the photographer recalls, grinning. “Then I took Elizabeth to the National Gallery, and as we were leaving there were all these photographers. The next day it was on the cover of The Washington Post or something, and I had to make an explanation at school. I passed all my exams anyway.” An opportunity to photograph his new friend followed soon thereafter. “My cousin wanted her to go to Iran for this inaugural flight on Iran Air, and he invited a lot of society people—[Elizabeth] said she would go if I would go with her,” Zahedi says. “I hadn’t been there since the age of nine—I didn’t really have any desire to go back … it wasn’t really a place to be an artist.”

But together, the two friends saw Iran through fresh eyes, acting like “a couple of tourists,” Zahedi says. “There was no pressure, just lots of fun. No one recognized her.” He snapped photographs of her in teahouses and in Persepolis—in front of the tent city built for the 2,500-year anniversary of Iran’s kings and monarchies, now a “weathered symbol of decadence left over from the Shah’s regime,” Zahedi says. “I have one shot of her standing in front of the mosque in a chador—you’ll notice there’s a man going in and a woman going in. Now in Iran, you can’t do that anymore.”

Beginning February 26—the eve of Taylor’s 79th birthday—the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present “Elizabeth Taylor in Iran: Photographs by Firooz Zahedi,” a collection of nearly three dozen of those vividly colorful images documenting the first and only trip Taylor took to the country. Zahedi has worked for many publications, including Vanity Fair, Interview, and Esquire, and has created such iconic images as the one of Uma Thurman languishing on a motel bed for Pulp Fiction. Yet it is Taylor whom Zahedi directly credits with fostering his early creative beginnings—and 35 years later, they are still close friends.