Nathan Edwin Farb (January 18, 1941 – March 26, 2026) was an American photographer. Over the course of his career, he photographed numerous subjects including 1960s counterculture, people in the Soviet Union, and landscapes of the Adirondack Mountains.

Early life and education

Born in Konawa, Oklahoma, on January 18, 1941, his father died before he was born. His mother remarried and moved with him from Lake Placid, New York, to Hackensack, New Jersey, after the death of his stepfather. He attended Rutgers University, where he was awarded a degree in psychology.

Career

After graduating from Rutgers, Farb worked at the School of Social Work at Columbia University, as Head Start program computer programmer, and as a reporter for The Record of New Jersey.

In 1967, Farb bought a Pentax camera and began photographing the Lower East Side of New York. He began photographing old world residents and new. Eventually, being drawn to East Village's Summer of Love.

Farb taught at Rutgers in the 1970s and the New School in the 1980s while working as a freelance photographer for a number of publications including Life, Audubon, and The New York Times.

In 1977, Farb travled the USSR during a time of détente between that country and the United States. He was invited to replace another photographer in an exhibition sponsored by the United States Information Agency titled Photography USA, a traveling display of photos of American life and photographic technology, which toured six Soviet cities. While in the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, he set up a photography studio. He photographed hundreds of the city's residents from all occupations and ages. The images were captured using a large-format 4x5 camera with Polaroid film. He gave the positive image to the subjects and took the negative images back to the United States where a selection was published in the 1980 book The Russians: An American Photographer Looks at the Soviet People.

In his late 30s, he began to focus his photography on the Adirondack Mountains. He felt that the best, most spectacular scenery of the region was far from the areas most people visit. He carry his large-format 8x10 Deardorff view camera and equipment into the backcountry. Describing his work in 2022, he stated that he was "trying to make images that would represent points where you could meditate."

In 2024, a documentary film was released titled Nathan Farb and the Cold War. It explores the 1977 trip Farb took to the Soviet Union and a return visit he made 41 years later.

Personal life

Farb's life partner was Kathleen Carroll, a former film critic for The Daily News. He and Judith Sergel had a daughter and stepdaughter.

Farb died on March 26, 2026 at his home in Jay, New York.