He was a luminary behind the camera who captured the legendary in front of it, but at the age of 80, photographer William Claxton has died.

Claxton succumbed to complications stemming from congestive heart failure on Saturday at Los Angeles' Cedars Sinai Medical Center, leaving behind a raft of iconic images of music stars.

While best known for his portraits of jazz artists such as Chet Baker, Claxton snapped a who’s who of the entertainment world, among them Steve McQueen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra.

His images graced the covers of numerous albums and made the pages of the world’s most feted glossy magazines, Vogue and Paris Match among them.

Born in California, he picked up a camera as a young man but initially saw photography as a hobby. He studied for a degree in psychology but would hang around jazz clubs, taking pictures of the acts.

He got his start with record lable Pacific Jazz as an art director and in-house photographer and immediately set about redefining the jazz shot.

As he explained: “Most of the jazz photography before me showed sweaty musicians with shiny faces in dark, smoky little bars. That was jazz to most people. But being on the West Coast, I wanted to bring out the fact that musicians were living in a very health conscious environment. So I purposely put them on the beach or in the mountains or on the road in their convertibles.”

Claxton also helped to establish the organisation that runs the Grammy Awards and made his name in fashion in the 1960s, when he collaborated with his wife, model Peggy Moffitt Claxton, to create a collection of iconic images featuring Rudi Genreich’s designs. Around the same time he shot the film Basic Black, which is now widely considered to be the first fashion video.

Claxton also wrote 13 books and his work was exhibited around the world.

He is survived by his wife and son, Christopher.

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