Jim Marshall in 2002.

Jim Marshall, who captured many of the 20th century’s greatest musicians in some of their most iconic images, and who is often described as the Godfather of rock photography, died in his hotel room in New York City on Tuesday. He was 74.

Raised in San Francisco, Marshall bought his first Leica camera in 1959. Only a year later, after a life-changing chance meeting with jazz great John Coltrane, Marshall would discover his passion. From there he would make a career out of documenting great rock and jazz heroes — from Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin and Bob Dylan, to Coltrane, Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles and many, many more.

According to his website, Marshall shot over 500 album covers. He is also the man behind some of rock’s most iconic images. He photographed Johnny Cash giving the middle finger during the singer’s San Quentin prison concert. He was the only photographer allowed backstage at the final Beatles concert in San Francisco in 1966. He shot Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. He was also the chief photographer at Woodstock.

Almost as famed as his images was his reputation as a surly, forceful artist. He refused to mess with lighting or let his subjects wear make-up, preferring instead to capture them in their natural element. He never let anyone tell him where, when or how to shoot, and he often kicked publicists, agents and managers out of the room. And for him, this was a bond not to be taken lightly.

“I consider what I do with the person I shoot a covenant,” he once said. “They present themselves to me, and I treat them with dignity. I refuse to violate that trust.”

As the unofficial documenter of music culture in the ’60s and ’70s, Marshall left behind a legacy that will be appreciated by music-lovers and photographers for many years to come.

His craft was everything to him. “I have no kids,” he often said. “My photographs are my children.”