Grace Jones

In the 1970s, Jean-Paul Goude made so many iconic and popular album covers for his then-partner Grace Jones that he would eventually become known as the man who “created” Grace Jones. Working with basic tools and without computers, Goude anticipated the current era of photoediting. The above photo of Grace Jones holding a microphone while nearly naked was published in New York magazine in 1978, and was so loved by Jones that she used it on her 1985 album Island Life.

Few people knew that it was not a photograph, but a photocollage. Goude remembers about the photo he called “Nigger Arabesque”: “Unless you are extraordinarily supple, you cannot do this arabesque. The main point is that Grace couldn’t do it, and that’s the basis of my entire work: creating a credible illusion.” He photographed her in a variety of positions, using boxes to help prop up her body, and pieced these images together to create the incredible illusion.

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