Top celebrity and fashion photographer dies

Top United States celebrity and fashion photographer Herb Ritts, famed for his studies of famous friends and erotic nudes, has died at the age of 50.

Ritts died at the University of California at Los Angeles medical centre from complications stemming from pneumonia, his spokesman Stephen Huvane said.

Ritts' most recent project was a shoot with Hollywood heartthrob Ben Affleck just over a week ago.

He produced some of the most enduring images of the 1980s and 1990s, gracing the covers and the pages of publications such as Rolling Stone and Vogue.