Perhaps one of the ultimate creative collaborations is Jean-Paul Goude and Grace Jones:-

“Initially, she was flattered by all of my attention,” says Goude on his former muse and lover. “And she’s no dope – Grace is an opportunist and she knew my vision was good for her career. Initially, she let herself be taken over, but then she suspected that I had only fallen in love with her image.” Was that true? “Of course it was! That’s the story of my life.”
The Guardian 

Jean-Paul Goude, was a photographer and art director when he met Grace Jones. She, at the time, was a model and performer. What began then was the most amazing, inspirational collaboration in our modern creative history. I distinctly remember the first time I saw their work together – work of jawdropping effect. Work so powerful and confident, with the power of its own convictions, that it stood out from everything around it at the time.

Jean-Paul Goude became famous for his other-wordly creations featuring Grace and went to many lengths to achieve them. “What I’m interested is the illusion of reality,” says Goude to The Guardian. To achieve the iconic full-length portrait of Grace, without Photoshop and today’s easy computer manipulation, was a testament to his search for perfection. He did it by cutting up transparencies of many different poses to create a montage of the perfect pose (see stages below). This was to be the launch image of Grace Jones as an icon in 1978.

After that, from album covers to tv ads, his creativity with her knew no bounds. I especially remember the totally shocking Citroen ad – it was way ahead of its time.

25 years later, in Spring 2009, they were ‘together’ again to produce some seriously fierce imagery for V Magazine (above) for the release of her new album ‘Hurricane’, the first in 20 years. You can purchase ‘Hurricane’ here. And Jean-Paul Goude released a retrospective of work to mark his 30-year career, ‘So Far So Goude’, available here.

Just going to show – true talent never fades or ages.