Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark nicknamed 'snake charmer of the soul' for riveting gift of capture dies in New York at 75

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Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark, called 'a snake charmer of the soul' for her gift of capturing searing images of human vulnerability, has died at age 75.

She died on Monday at a New York hospital after a long battle with a blood illness caused by bone marrow failure, her close friend Kelly Cutrone said.

Mark's subjects ranged from runaway children and heroin addicts to celebrities and world leaders. She also pointed her lens at members of the Ku Klux Klan, a women's security ward in a mental institution and various celebrities.

Dead at 75: Photographer Mary Ellen Mark, pictured in 2013, died on Monday at a New York hospital after a long battle with a blood illness caused by bone marrow failure, her close friend Kelly Cutrone said

Wide range: Mary Ellen Mark, picured in all black in recent years, pointed her lens at members of the Ku Klux Klan, a women's security ward in a mental institution and various celebrities during her vibrant career

Master of the lens: Mary Ellen Mark, pictured in 2004, has said her greatest love is traveling the world and being able to take photographs, such as the ones taken for her book twins 

Over the decades, 'what resulted was, in fact, a lamentation: one of the most delicately shaded studies of vulnerability ever set on film,' wrote the late Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes.

A collection of Mark photographs in a book titled 'Streetwise' documents the life of Tiny Blackwell, a Seattle prostitute and drug addict Mark met in the 1980s when Tiny was 13. A new book on Blackwell photographed over decades is yet to be published, titled 'Tiny: Streetwise Revisited.'

The photographer chose Seattle 'because it is known as "America's most livable city,"' she wrote in the preface to her book on the subject. 

'By choosing America's ideal city we were making the point: "If street kids exist in a city like Seattle then they can be found everywhere in America, and we are therefore facing a major social problem of runaways in this country."'Mark's work appeared in prominent publications including Life, the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. She also published 18 books. 

Her latest project, for CNN, was New Orleans on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Mark was born and raised in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. 

Mark told the New York Times magazine in 1987 that her two goals in high school were to become head cheerleader and to be popular with boys and she managed to attain both those aspirations.

In 1962, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor of fine arts in art history and painting, followed by a master's in photojournalism.

Her work drew attention in the 1960s, when she photographed heroin addicts in London, steeping herself in the humanity of overlooked subjects.

Award winning: Mary Ellen Mark, winner of the Outstanding Contribtuion to Photography award on stage at the 2014 Sony World Photography awards (SWPA) at the London Hilton on April 30, 2014 in London, England

Mary Ellen Mark was a renowned documentary photographer whose subjects ranged from runaway children to world leaders and whose intimate work led friends to nickname her a 'snake charmer of the soul'

Mary Ellen Mark, at her booksigning for 'Twins' back in 2003, published 18 books and her work has appeared in pulications such as Life, the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair

Seeing double: Jeff Thiel, photographer Mary Ellen Mark and Jim Thiel attend the booksigning for Mark's book 'Twins' in which they were featured 

'She was a snake charmer of the soul,' said Cutrone, an author and publicist who considered Mark 'like my divine mother and mentor.'

'She had the ability and intuition to see inside people, to evoke their soul.'

Mark, in her SoHo neighborhood, knew people in the street and in shops, Cutrone said.

'She talked to everybody,' she said. 'She was really connected.'

Mary Ellen Mark's work first drew attention in the 1960s, when she photographed heroin addicts in London, steeping herself in the humanity of overlooked subjects

Mark, a photographer's photographer, never really switched to digital cameras.

'I'm staying with film, and with silver prints, and no Photoshop,' she told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2008. 

'That's the way I learned photography: You make your picture in the camera. Now, so much is made in the computer. ... I'm not anti-digital, I just think, for me, film works better.'

Mark is survived by her husband, filmmaker Martin Bell, who directed the documentary 'Streetwise' based on her images.

Stuck to film: Mark, a photographer's photographer, pictured posing with one of her works in October of last year, never really switched to digital cameras

'She was a great storyteller,' said Melissa Harris, the editor in chief of the Aperture Foundation, who edited several of Ms. Mark’s books to the New York Times.

'She got to know the subjects she photographed very well, and she was able to convey who they were and how they lived, as well as a sense of their interior lives. There are not that many photographers who can do that.'

Mark had a love for travel and always loved capturing new faces. 

'I would die if I had to be confined,' Ms. Mark told an interviewer for the introduction to her first book 'Passport,' published in 1974.

'I don’t want to feel that I’m missing out on experiencing as much as I can. For me, experiencing is knowing people all over the world and being able to photograph.' 

A New York memorial is planned for September 10.