BERLIN (AFP).- Australian photographer June Newton has died aged 97 in Monte Carlo, the foundation she created announced Saturday.

A renowned portraitist, she is famous for capturing Yves Saint-Laurent, Billy Wilder, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Madonna and even the Hells Angels for magazines like Vanity Fair, Elle and Vogue.

The Helmut Newton Foundation, of which she was president, said she died in her home on Friday.

"We mourn the loss of an outstanding person and an internationally recognised photographer," the foundation said in a statement.

Newton, whose maiden name was Brown and worked under the pseudonym Alice Springs, fell into photography when she stepped in for her husband, legendary photographer Helmut Newton, on a shoot in 1970.

The pair met when she was 24 and working as an actress in Australia.

They were married for more than 60 years until Helmut Newton was killed in a traffic accident in Los Angeles in 2004.

She created the Helmut Newton Foundation the same year and based it in Berlin, where her late husband was cremated.

© Agence France-Presse