Chris Dreja, a musician, photographer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who was a co-founder of the pioneering British rock band the Yardbirds and a co-writer of many of that band's songs, has died, according to social media posts from his sister-in-law and his former bandmate Jimmy Page. He was 79.

While the Yardbirds never achieved the same level of fame as contemporaries like the Rolling Stones, the band was enormously influential and is best known for having Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in its lead guitarist role between 1963 and its dissolution in 1968. Dreja -- pictured above, second from left, with the group in 1967 -- was originally the band's rhythm guitarist and shifted over to bass after Page joined in 1966. He was invited to join Led Zeppelin but declined, opting to pursue a career as a photographer instead. He shot the band photo on the back cover of Led Zeppelin's first album.

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Born Christopher Walenty Dreja in 1945 to Polish immigrant parents, Dreja grew up in Kingston Upon Thames and was bitten by the rock and roll bug as a teenager. His brother was a classmate of original Yardbirds lead guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham in a pre-college art program; the two met and played together in an early rock band. In 1963 the two joined forces with singer Keith Relf, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty as the Metropolitan Blues Quartet and soon renamed themselves the Yardbirds. Topham left just weeks later and was replaced by Clapton, whose fiery playing boosted the band's reputation as they worked the London club circuit. Later in 1963, they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at London's legendary Crawdaddy club.

While the band's lively early blues-rock sets are captured on the 1964 album "Five Live Yardbirds," recorded at London'd Marquee Club, the group shifted into a more pop direction with its first hit, "For Your Love," and a disenchanted Clapton left the band to play bluesier material with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. The Yardbirds originally approached Page, who was enjoying a lucrative career playing sessions, but he declined and instead recommended his longtime friend Beck.

The ensuing era was the group's most commercially successful, as Beck's innovative playing embellished the band's increasingly experimental sound. This period peaked with such singles as "Heart Full of Soul," "Shapes of Things," "Evil Hearted You," "Still I'm Sad," a cover of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" and "Over Under Sideways Down," as well as the 1966 self-titled album often called "Roger the Engineer," after its Dreja-illustrated cover.

Samwell-Smith left in mid-1966 and Page joined initially on bass until Dreja got up to speed on the instrument, and a legendary, albeit short-lived, lineup of the band with Beck and Page on dueling lead guitars was born. That lineup is documented only on three songs, most notably the innovative single "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and a version of "Stroll On" that was featured in the Antonioni film "Blow Up." The Beck-Page Yardbirds appear in that film, miming to the song at a rock club in a performance that culminates with Beck smashing his guitar. While the group toured with the Rolling Stones and Ike & Tina Turner on a legendary September 1966 tour of England, that "Blow Up" scene proved prescient as Beck exited the group months later during an exhausting American tour.

The Yardbirds continued with Page as the sole guitarist and Dreja on bass, recording one disappointing album (1968's "Little Games") but touring the U.S. extensively as the psychedelic movement blossomed. Its influence was seen in the band's wardrobe but not so much in its sound, with the exception of songs like "Glimpses" and Page's "Think About It." However, the group was dispirited and split in mid-1968, although it had already booked a Scandinavian tour for that fall. After being declined by Dreja, Page recruited new members -- bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham -- and did the tour as the New Yardbirds before renaming the band Led Zeppelin.

Dreja -- who took many striking photos of 1960s-era America while on tour with the Yardbirds -- worked successfully as a photographer for many years, also shooting Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, a later shoot with Zeppelin and many others. He returned to music in the 1980s with former bandmates as Box of Frogs before launching a Yardbirds revival in the 1990s (minus the superstar guitarists and Relf, who died in 1976). The group released an album titled "Birdland" in 2002, featuring guest appearances from Queen's Brian May, Guns N' Roses' Slash and others.

However, he suffered a series of strokes in 2012 and retired from music. His death leaves McCarty and Samwell-Smith as the sole surviving original Yardbirds.