Actress Zhang Ziyi takes part during a photo shoot for 2017 Pirelli calendar. [Photo/ Weibo account of Pirelli]

He also shot three editions of the Pirelli calendar.

"He was a master, a protagonist of the history of photography and also of the Pirelli Calendar," said Marco Tronchetti Provera, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Pirelli.

Lindbergh, known for his cinematic approach, made an appearance at the Berlin Film Festival in February for a documentary about him called Women's Stories.

The Instagram message said the photographer, who also directed films and documentaries, had died on Sept 3. It gave no further details, saying only he was survived by his wife Petra, his first wife Astrid, four sons and seven grandchildren.

"He leaves a big void," it said.

Supermodel Linda Evangelista wrote: "Heartbroken. R.I.P. my Peet."

Lindbergh grew up in the Ruhr area of western Germany before studying at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts in the 1960s.

On his website he said he was inspired by Vincent van Gogh and, like the Dutch artist, lived in Arles in France as a young man before travelling through Spain and northern Africa.

In the 1970s he turned to photography and pioneered a form that became known as new realism which rejected retouching.

"This should be the responsibility of photographers today to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection," he is quoted as saying on his website. 

REUTERS