Photo copyright John Hedgecoe.

Photographer John Hedgecoe, author of more than 30 books on photography and creator of the most reproduced image in the world, the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that appears on British stamps, has died. He was 73.

With a career spanning fifty years, John Hedgecoe was an award-winning photographer who wrote dozens of books on the art of photography that have sold more than nine million copies (His most recent was The Art of Digital Photography in 2006), and was instrumental in establishing the department of Photography at the U.K.’s Royal College of Art in 1965.

However, Hedgecoe was most recognized as the photographer who snapped the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that appears on postage stamps throughout the U.K. and the Commonwealth. The image is widely credited with being the most reproduced image in the world, having sold more than two billion copies to date.

“John Hedgecoe was hugely instrumental in ensuring that photography was accepted as a creative medium in its own right at the Royal College of Art,” said a spokesman for the college. “While emphasizing commercial, advertising and documentary photography, John also laid the groundwork for what later became known as ‘independent’ photography.”

Hedgecoe’s passing was also mourned by the British Royal Photographic Society, who called it a “very sad loss” and described him as a man whose books have reached millions of photographers.