A celebrity photographer found dead in his London Fields home earlier this year took his own life, a coroner concluded today.

Matt Irwin, who worked with the likes of Rita Ora, Nikki Minaj and Kylie Minogue, wrote in a suicide note that “as a guy who was depressed he could not say he wasn’t coping”.

Harry Styles from One Direction was among the celebrities who attended Mr Irwin’s funeral. Another tribute came from presenter presenter and model Alexa Chung.

Friends became worried after not hearing from the 36-year-old fashion photographer, originally from Southport, for a couple of days.

They called police, who found him dead in his Mentmore Terrace home on May 5.

An inquest into his death at Poplar Coroner’s Court heard on Monday how a post-mortem found the anaesthetic and hypnotic drug GHB, also known as “liquid ecstasy”, in his blood – at nearly twice the fatal level.

The door to his flat had been left open and police found a piece of paper with a password on top of his laptop, where he had written two notes.

The first, titled “in the event of my death”, was a “will of sorts”, while the other, “open letter to the world”, was a “letter of intention”, according to coroner Jaqueline Devonish.

She said: “He confirms that he was depressed and describes depression as brutal. He comments that as a guy he really can’t say he’s not coping.”

She continued: “In this note itself he says: ‘Is this a suicide note of sorts? I’m not sure.’ He also thinks about the people who have been kind to him and helped him and felt he was letting them down.

“He couldn’t get into an infinite growth model, and feeling you have always got to do bigger and better things. He said that it was totally unsustainable and that he was being swept away by it. He said it scared him he was not good at anything.”

A statement from a friend, Samantha Teasdale, described how Mr Irwin had been sad after the end of a relationship. “Matthew was joyful,” she said. “But this year he was very down and depressed because Andrew had called the relationship off and gone back to his partner. Matthew changed after this and started going to the gym all the time and travelling. I think he did this to hide his depression.”

Confidential emotional support is available from Samaritans. Call 116 123 free.