Baudrillard was a prolific writer and respected photographer who was renowned for his provocative commentaries on consumerism, excess and what he called the disappearance of reality.

Also known for his concepts of "hyperreality" and "simulation," he attracted attention in the English-speaking world in 1991 with the deliberately provocative book titled "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place."

He argued that neither side could claim victory by the end of the war and that the conflict had changed nothing on the ground in Iraq.

Just over a decade on, in an essay entitled "The Spirit of Terrorism: Requiem for the Twin Towers," he courted fresh controversy by describing the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States as an expression of "triumphant globalization battling against itself."

Born in Rheims on July 29, 1929, into a peasant family, he studied German at the Sorbonne, later working as a teacher and translator of Bertolt Brecht before his interests turned to sociology.

Baudrillard taught sociology throughout the 1960s and went on to develop a stinging -- some say nihilistic -- critique of modern society.

He was the author of more than 50 works including: "The Mirror of Production" (1973), "Simulacra and Simulation" (1981), "America" (1986), and "The Spirit of Terrorism: And Requiem for the Twin Towers" (2002).