[2] He worked as art director at Esquire magazine in New York City during the 1970s,[3] and choreographed the 1989 Bicentennial Parade in Paris to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

[4] In addition, over the last three decades, he has created campaigns and illustrations for brands including Perrier, Citroën, Kodak, Chanel, Kenzo, Shiseido, Cacharel, H&M, Galeries Lafayette and Desigual.

[citation needed] Jean-Paul Goude was born on 8 December 1938 to an American ballet dancer, and a French elevator repairman, and grew up in the Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé .

"[6] He studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris before embarking on his career as an illustrator.

[3] His illustrations for the magazine, including an oil-on-photo painting of Mao Zedong in the Yangtze River with a rubber Donald Duckie,[7] have been described as skirting on the edges of surrealism.

[6] Goude worked closely with model-turned-pop-singer Grace Jones, consulting on her image, choreographing her live stage performances, directing her music videos, and creating her album covers.

In "Island Life," a photo which he created for cover for Grace Jones's album of the same name, Goude photographed her in several different positions, then overlaid the images to elongate the neck, and legs, and to display her torso completely turned forward.

[5] In 2014, Goude photographed Kim Kardashian for Paper magazine, which used the caption break the internet on the cover of the edition which featured the photos.

[12] Others have drawn the comparison between these photos and depictions of Sarah Baartman, seeing them as part of the continuing history of the exploitation of black women's bodies.