Accomplished Australian fashion photographer Richard Bailey, who spent 30 years photographing the world’s biggest actresses and supermodels for magazines like Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 52.

Bailey passed away on Tuesday night in Sydney after a fight with bladder cancer that lasted six years. Despite his illness, and even in his final moments, Bailey never stopped thinking about his next shoot.

“In the last few years he made every effort to keep working, even though he was very ill,” his wife, former fashion model Gillian Bailey, said of her husband.

Richard Bailey’s career began at just 21 when he started shooting for Vogue Australia, where he would remain an integral part for the rest of his career. He actually got his break as an outdoor photographer but soon moved indoors to work in more fashionable settings, winning top photography awards and building relationships with stars like Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Janet Jackson, Claudia Schiffer, Helena Christensen, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Eric Bana and Katie Holmes.

Campaigns for magazines like Neiman Marcus, Gap and Victoria’s Secret, as well as editorial work for Vanity Fair and GQ earned him recognition in the US as well.

“He was always really brilliant outdoors and had that northern beaches sensibility and a beautiful sense of light. All of his work had a quality that was above and beyond everyone else in the marketplace,” says Kirstie Clements, editor for Australian Vogue. “He was right up there with the best.”