Photo Matt Irwin, left, photographing Vinoodh Matadin, Yi Zhou and Inez van Lamsweerde at an event in 2011. Credit David X Prutting/Bfa
LONDON — Some of the biggest names in music, fashion and entertainment have been paying heartfelt homage this week to a British photographer known for his candid celebrity shots, playful magazine covers and close relationships with his subjects. Matt Irwin died on Thursday of undisclosed causes at the age of 36.
Mr. Irwin was a relatively unfamiliar figure to the public. Or at least he was until this past weekend, when several of his celebrity subjects took to social media to mourn.
Lady Gaga posted a shot of her wrapped in violet gauze taken by Mr. Irwin with a caption that included: "I will never forget this shoot together it was magical."
"I just don't want to believe he's gone. He literally took my pics 3 months ago after I specifically REQUESTED him!!!" Nicki Minaj, the singer and rapper, wrote on Instagram next to a picture of the two of them head-to-head, Mr. Irwin playfully sticking out his tongue. "Always made me so happy on set. Always so loving & sweet & optimistic. This is so surreal. He was just so unbelievably TALENTED!!!! God bless his family. Rest in peace my love. #RIPMattIrwin"
Thousands of One Direction fans posted their favorite images of the boy band taken by the late photographer using a trending hashtag in tribute, while Jeremy Scott, the fashion designer and creative director of Moschino, put up a tribute to Mr. Irwin alongside a snapshot of the photographer, headphones on his neck and vintage cellphone in hand, posing with the model Agyness Deyn. "MY DARLING SWEET MATT THIS IS HOW I WILL ALWAYS THINK OF YOU BACK IN 2006," Mr. Scott's message began.
The celebrities' praise supported a statement from Camilla Lowther Management, Mr. Irwin's photography agency: "Matt's unprecedented access to a generation of musicians, models, and actors of our time leaves behind a visual chronicle that reveals — and pays testament to — his infectious passion, enthusiasm and talent."
In less than a decade Mr. Irwin had built a reputation as a well-connected and digitally savvy photographer, acutely aware of the rising power of social media in creating 21st-century perceptions of celebrity, the relentless demands by hyper-connected millennial fans for intimate insider access and the increasingly blurred lines between public and private content.
His ph otographs often reached much larger audiences than the circulation of the publications that hired him, thanks to tongue-in-cheek, off-duty snaps of himself with his megastar subjects that he posted on his Instagram account. Often, in a modern pop culture twist on art imitating life, the flashes from the celebrities' own cameras or smartphones would illuminate him in the shots.
Mr. Irwin, who was born in Southport, England, on Feb. 10, 1980, picked up his first camera at the age of 15 when a friend lent him a Kodak Super 8. After moving to London, he got his first industry break as an editor and then in-house photographer at the cult fashion publication Dazed & Confused, where he shot his first cover in 2007. Later, he worked for magazines such as Elle UK, Vogue Russia, Vogue Japan and Glamour, as well as the French luxury hous e Hermès.
"Matt was part of the first generation of digital natives," said Jefferson Hack, founder of Dazed Media.
Mr. Hack added that Mr. Irwin — along with his friend Nicola Formichetti, now the artistic director at Diesel — "helped usher in a bold new aesthetic and direction for Dazed, and then pop culture in the late '00s."
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