Garry Gross, the fashion photographer known for his 1970s nude images of Brooke Shields taken when she was just 10, passed away.

His sister Linda Gross said the 73-year-old died on November 30 from a heart attack at his home in New York’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood.

“He’ll be sorely missed by family and friends alike,” Ms Gross said.

Mr Gross earned his reputation as a celebrity image-maker – his pictures graced the covers of albums by Whitney Houston and Lou Reed – but in 2002 he switched careers and became certified as a dog trainer. Most recently, he had turned to photographing portraits of canines.

But it was the controversial 1970s images of Ms Shields that marked his career most significantly.

In 1975 the actress’ mother Teri Shields consented to allow her daughter, then a child model, to be photographed nude for a Playboy Press publication.

She and her mother earned $450 for the shoot, which included a full-frontal nude image of the girl standing in a bathtub.

When Ms Shields’ acting career took off years later, she said she was embarrassed by the continued circulation of the pictures and at 17 she sued Mr Gross in New York to stop him from selling the images. She argued that they were an invasion of her privacy and caused her embarrassment.

But after a lower court granted her an injunction, the state’s Court of Appeals decided 4-3 that the teenager could not break the contract signed by her mother that allowed Mr Gross to take the pictures.

The court said Mr Gross could continue to market the photos, but not to pornographic publications.

The photo shoot continued to make headlines decades later. Last year, one of the images, appropriated by American artist Richard Prince for a work, had to be withdrawn by the Tate Modern museum in London after Scotland Yard warned that the image could break obscenity laws.