Marion Evelyn Faller, renowned documentary photo artist and retired UB faculty member, died Jan. 15 in Hospice Buffalo, Cheektowaga, after a short illness. She was 72.

Born Marion Sudol in Passaic, N.J., she was selected as Miss Polish America in a national pageant in 1960.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and an MFA from UB.

Faller taught at Hunter College, Marymount Manhattan College and Colgate University before joining the UB faculty in 1982. She taught studio and art history courses, retiring in 2006 as a professor of photography.

She exhibited frequently in galleries here and across the nation, and was subject of a solo exhibit in 2006 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, to which she donated 199 of her photographs and artworks in 2012. Her photographs also are included in many other public collections.

She was drawn to everyday phenomena, documenting ethnic markets, Christmas and Halloween displays, and the contents of her teenage son’s pockets.

In a statement about her art in 2002, she wrote: “My work is about how individuals and communities visually express their values, their interests and their sense of what is important and beautiful.

“The subject matter is usually close to home — homes, yards, small businesses and community buildings such as schools or churches. ... Much of my photography addresses the various ways we celebrate holidays and respond to the changing seasons.”

Faller’s husband, avant-garde filmmaker, digital art pioneer and UB faculty member Hollis Frampton, died in 1984