Nathan Farb, a photographer whose career took him from downtown Manhattan to a city in Siberia and then to the Adirondack Mountains of New York, died on March 26 at his home in Jay, a town in Adirondack Park. He was 85.

            Mr. Farb did not pick up a camera in a serious way until he was 25, but when he did, he felt an immediate desire to be a photographer.

            “The camera satisfied so many needs for me: The need to be with people, the need to connect to people, the need to express myself, the need to be able to comment on society,” he said.