The Swiss photographer René Burri has died at the age of 81, his agency Magnum Photos has announced. In a statement released on Magnum's website, a spokesperson for Burri's family said: "The famous Swiss photographer René Burri left us today, at the age of 81 after a long illness."

"He leaves behind an important body of work on recent history, which has been published in countless newspapers, journals, magazines, exhibitions and books all over the world. Among his most famous photos are portraits of Che Guevara, Pablo Picasso and Le Corbusier, a breathtaking view into the streets of Sao Paolo and his stories of Cuba and Vietnam."

Born in Zurich, Burri swiftly became one of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century, famed and revered for his compassionate documentation of human joy and suffering across the world. Burri became most well known for his photographs of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, taken in 1963. 

His image of the notorious rebel smoking a cigar holds a place as one of the century's most well recognised photographs. His portraits of Pablo Picasso are also firmly embedded in the history of popular culture.

"I lived and grew up in the black and white period of photojournalism," Burri said in an interview for what would be his final book, Impossible Reminiscences. "I never had the time or luxury to think about inventing my own colour theory. When colour came, I was interested in expressing things that happened around me in time. I think that's the strength of photography – to decide the decisive moment, to click in the moment to come up with a picture that never comes back again."

More recently, Burri collaborated with Rei Kawakubo in 2012 on limited edition Comme des Garçons t-shirts and allowed the brand to reappropriate his images for the brand's printed announcements and invitations. "Looking back, I didn't have the patience to work in fashion. I like women so much, but I was never qualified to torture them in photo shoots. You have to be really tough and brutal," Burri told AnOther.

Martin Parr, the president of Magnum Photos said in a statement: "Not only was he one of the great post war photographers, he was also one of the most generous people I have had the privilege to meet. His contribution to Magnum and his unrivalled ability to tell stories and entertain us over this time will be part of his enormous legacy."