36 Hours in New York

With so much to see, the trick is to edit out the visual distractions — just as with any good photograph.

THINK of New York City as photography's oyster. As a subject, photographers have been endlessly attracted to its streets (Lee Friedlander), night life (Weegee), world-famous skyline (Berenice Abbott) and all the refracted angles in between. As a place to view great works, it offers possibilities that are endless, from museums and galleries devoted to the art form, to restaurants and bars that hang rarified works. The city is the world's media capital, so photography not only attracts artists and shutterbugs alike, but it's also a big business, fueling everything from advertising and modeling agencies to retouching labs and frame shops. With so much to see, the trick is to edit out the visual distractions — just as with any good photograph.

Friday

4 p.m.
1) NOT YOUR LOCAL FOTOMAT
A photo lab may not sound like a romantic start, but for serious artists like Tina Barney and Robert Polidori, Laumont (333 West 52nd Street, 212-245-2113; www.laumont.com) is the place to go for exhibition-quality prints. Perhaps you have a favorite photo that needs to be digitally retouched or restored. Or maybe you want to print a prized image. Laumont offers a wide spectrum of options, from 8- by-10-inch C-prints ($55), to 72-by-140-inch iris or pigment prints ($1,460). If nothing else, it's an excuse to spend time with the major players in the field: you never know who might walk through the door.

5 p.m.
2) ON THE WALLS

If you go to just one museum, make it the International Center of Photography, a requisite stop for any self-respecting photo maven (1133 Avenue of the Americas, 212-857-0000; www.icp.org; $12). Two important exhibits this summer exemplify its mission to present a diverse range of photography and offer serious scholarship. “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” offers portraits of influential African-Americans of the 20th century, taken by well-known photographers. Downstairs is a Stephen Shore retrospective; his supersize color images and small snapshots offer a time capsule of 1970s America. Give yourself time to linger in the bookstore, an assemblage of the best photography books in print. Try this exercise: compare the new book by Mr. Shore, “The Nature of Photographs,” and the recently republished “Looking at Photographs,” written by John Szakowski in 1973. Their selections of photographs offer an illuminating contrast between photographic styles and approaches. Before you leave, pick up a $5 copy of “Photograph,” an exhaustive guide on the city's gallery offerings.

7 p.m.
3) THE BIG PICTURE

One block west is Times Square. Like every tourist who walks through, you might be tempted to whip out your camera and snap away at the huge electronic billboards that boggle the eye. But that's not the goal here. Watch the news pictures of the day from Reuters that appear intermittently every hour on the jumbo billboard that wraps around the corner of its building at 3 Times Square (at West 43rd Street). It's worth contrasting these still images with the moving advertising images all around you. Imagine what this optical barrage would do to Robert Capa's nervous system.

8:30 p.m.
4) STEAK FRITES WITH BRASSAï

In a city with eight million restaurants, why make reservations for Café Loup in Greenwich Village (105 West 13th Street, 212-255-4746)? For starters, this loosely French restaurant is a true comfort zone and draws a well-heeled, lively downtown crowd. Let your eyes wander around the room: the walls are covered with crisply framed photographs by Berenice Abbott, Brassaï and Irving Penn, lending the restaurant a salon-like flair. So does the food: try the salad lyonnaise with Belgian endives ($12), followed by the hanger steak frites ($19.50) or tuna carpaccio over Asian slaw ($18.50).

11 p.m.
5) BOîTE NOIR

On the soigné side, the Bowery Bar (40 East Fourth Street, 212-475-2220; www.bbarandgrill.com) is a perfect spot for a martini before hitting the late-night bars on the Lower East Side. Walk into the back-room lounge where Nan Goldin's pictures of the 1980s premier art club, Area, hang on the walls. As you do, reflect on the fact that she chronicled her friends and acquaintances in the East Village living the bohemian life — and the ballad of sexual dependency — only a few blocks away.

Saturday

10 a.m.
6) PRE-GALLERY BRUNCH

Chelsea may have the highest concentration of art galleries in the world, so before jumping in, fuel up at the Half King (505 West 23rd Street, 212-462-4300; www.thehalfking.com), a pub-style restaurant owned in part by the writer Sebastian Junger. Beware the portions: the Irish breakfast is large enough for two people ($13). While waiting for your mimosa, check out the photographs on the walls. The exhibitions, which change every two months, tend toward reportage; the current show by Paolo Pellegrin, an Italian photographer, documents last year's Lebanon war.

11:30 a.m.
7) CHELSEA CIRCUIT

Venturing to more than five galleries in one stretch can lead to eye fatigue, so here are a few sure bets. The Aperture Foundation (547 West 27th Street, 212-505-5555; www.aperture.org), which publishes Aperture quarterly and some of the finest photography books, has a spacious gallery that shouldn't be missed. Two shows this summer feature Civil Rights-era pictures by Bruce Davidson and Stephen Shames. Events are held frequently; on a recent visit, the British artists Gilbert and George were on hand to sign their mammoth new book. Other worthwhile places include Danziger Projects (521 West 26th Street, 212-629-6778; www.danzigerprojects.com), which shows new as well as historical work, often in collaboration with other galleries; Yossi Milo, the gallery that introduced Loretta Lux and continues to show cutting-edge work (525 West 25th Street, 212-414-0370; www.yossimilogallery.com); Matthew Marks, the blue-chip gallery that represents brand-name artists like Andreas Gursky (two galleries: 523 West 24th Street and 522 West 22nd Street, 212-243-0200; www.matthewmarks.com); and Yancey Richardson and Julie Saul galleries (both at 535 West 22nd Street), which specialize in photographers more familiar to art insiders.

4 p.m.
8) DUMBO IN BROOKLYN

That's Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, where you'll find the Powerhouse Arena (37 Main Street, 718-666-3049; www.powerhousearena.com), a multipurpose gallery, boutique and all-around hangout. But it's best known as a publisher of arguably subversive art books. For urban culture, flip through “Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt” and “Disco Years,” with photographs by the infamous Ron Galella. You'll most likely discover other titles and zines you've never seen before. Afterward, walk to the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park at the water's edge. Put your camera down and enjoy the postcard-perfect view: the Lower Manhattan skyline framed between the arches of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. O.K., maybe the view is worth at least one picture.

6 p.m.
9) ON ASSIGNMENT
The Flatiron building (Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street) is one of Manhattan's great landmarks and an architectural gateway to an area once known as the Photo District. The area is still home to many studios and labs, though their numbers have dwindled. For your own slice of photo history, stand at the north end of Madison Park and try recreating the way Edward Steichen shot the building at night or Alfred Stieglitz captured it in the snow — both more than a 100 years ago. Modern technology may have changed the look of photographs, but not their potential for poetry. Afterward, walk by 291 Fifth Avenue, near 31st Street, where Steichen and Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession gallery — later called 291 — in 1905. This is where Stieglitz began his impassioned advocacy for treating photography as fine art.

p.m.
10) MODERN TAPAS

Sample new flavors at Boqueria (53 West 19th Street, 212-255-4160; www.boquerianyc.com), a tapas restaurant where the seats are the height of bar stools and the crowd doesn't mind being packed in. Dinner tapas like squid salad, patatas bravas or chilled almond soup range from $7 to $14; entrees are $19 to $29. There's a nice a selection of Spanish wines, though you won't regret ordering one of the four sangrias.

10 p.m.
11) URBAN STILLS

Still looking for that great street life photo? Walk down to Union Square, a historic center of social activism that remains a popular gathering place for countercultural New Yorkers. Even at night, the area is bursting with visual activity. There are skateboarders practicing tricks on the wide steps, hip-hoppers testing new rhymes, students parading around in funky fashions and night strollers stealing a kiss. Keep your camera armed and ready.

Sunday

11 a.m.
12) PHOTO SHOP

Need more memory? You'll find that and much more at B & H (420 Ninth Avenue, 800-606-6969; www.bhphotovideo.com), the photography superstore of choice for professionals and hobbyists alike. The store, which is now in its third decade, carries everything from $12,000 Hasselblads and $120 Canons to $8,000 strobe lights and $2 film developing trays. The used department upstairs has good bargains. The store may seem intimidating at first, but the largely Hasidic sales staff members are exceedingly helpful and knowledgeable. Just check your credit limit before upgrading your camera system.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Gramercy Park Hotel (2 Lexington Avenue, 212-920-3300; www.gramercyparkhotel.com) is the latest in the Ian Schrager empire. Not only was the lobby designed by Julian Schnabel, but the rooms have Magnum photographs on the wall. Rooms start at $595.

The Hotel Chelsea (222 West 23rd Street, 212-243-3700; www.hotelchelsea.com) retains the feel of its demimonde past — which included photographers like Inge Morath and Robert Mapplethorpe. Even Henri Cartier-Bresson, who lived in Paris, kept a pied-a-terre there for years. Rooms start at $250.

THE great outdoors beckons, even in the dead of winter.

The Susquehannock Trail System is an 85-mile network of skiing, hiking and snowshoe trails through the Allegheny Mountains.

Camping Under a Mantle of Snow

Five spots in the Northeast ideal for the hardy lover of blissful winter solitude.

Yes, it is colder, windier. But the air is crisper, the views clearer, the animal tracks easier to see. And that blanket of snow on the ground and the glaze of ice on bare tree branches transform the woods. Here is the best part, though, hikers, skiers and snowshoers say: the abundance of blissful winter solitude.

So, it is the perfect time to go camping, right? Here are five spots in the Northeast ideal for the hardy lover of snow and cold. Accommodations range from lean-tos to campsites for your weather-ready tent, from modest cabins to rustic lodges. Spartan, yes. But it sure beats waiting in lift lines.

But before venturing too far, refer to the Trip Planner section of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Web site — www.outdoors.org/recreation/snow/index.cfm. Included are tips on winter camping and activities, gear and safety information, suggestions on dressing for cold-weather recreation and a winter gear list.

NORTH-CENTRAL MAINE

The first of five wonderlands for winter camping is in north-central Maine. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates two traditional camps situated in the state’s 100-Mile Wilderness region, part of the magnificent Maine Woods. The 100-Mile Wilderness is a roadless corridor that includes part of the Appalachian Trail and the Gulf Hagas loop trail.

And there are cabins equipped with gas or kerosene lamps and wood stoves. The Little Lyford Pond Camps, built in the 1870s, are remote camps reached by a seven-mile cross-country ski route. There are a main lodge, where meals are served, a bunkhouse and seven cabins, each with a wood stove. Sorry, no spa or granite countertops.

According to the mountain club’s “Discover Maine” travel guide, written by Ty Wivell, the Little Lyford Pond Camps are surrounded by woods and trails ideal for skiing and snowshoeing. The Medawisla Wilderness Camps, also operated by the club, are in the 100-Mile Wilderness as well.

Of special interest near Little Lyford is Laurie’s Ledge Trail, which is good for snowshoeing and offers, on a clear day, a stunning view of Mount Katahdin. Gulf Hagas, often called the Grand Canyon of Maine, is to the southeast of Little Lyford Ponds and can be reached by the River Trail, which follows the Pleasant River Tote Road.

Daily rates for a cabin at Little Lyford and Medawisla for the winter season, which runs through March, is $100 a day for adults who are club members and $120 for nonmembers. The rate is $120; $140 on Saturdays. Bunkhouse rates are $69 and $89 every day but Saturday. Three daily meals are included, and few things beat a hot meal after an exhilarating day on the trails. Reservations are required at both Little Lyford and Medawisla, which is on Second Roach Pond and is surrounded by 35 miles of trails.


Little Lyford Pond Camps: www.outdoors.org/lyford. Medawisla Wilderness Camps: www.outdoors.org/medawisla.

WEST-CENTRAL NEW HAMPSHIRE

Mount Cardigan, in the state’s Lakes Region, is a relatively low mountain at 3,155 feet, but “Old Baldy” offers a range of terrain, from hardwood forests to a wind-swept summit. At the mountain’s base is Cardigan Lodge and a campground run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Another rustic retreat, High Cabin, is on the mountain.

Cardigan Lodge is in a 1,200-acre reservation, also owned by the mountain club. There are about 50 miles of trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The lodge is heated in winter and has 13 coed bunk rooms that sleep two to six. Rates range from $35 per adult in the off-season for a shared room to $41 for a private room.

High Cabin, also owned and managed by the mountain club, is a rustic retreat near the summit that was built in 1931 and renovated in 2004. High Cabin specializes in scenic views and solitude. Rates range from $69 to $125 per night for full rental of the cabin, which can accommodate up to 12 people. Club members get a discount.

Tom Fisher, who manages Cardigan Lodge, recommends a snowshoeing trip that starts and ends at the lodge. It is a 3.8-mile loop over the Manning, Holt, Vistamont, Clark and Woodland trails, and there is an ascent and descent of about 1,000 feet, but it goes through grand, open beech woods and offers a lot of afternoon sun.

Mr. Fisher recommends a four-mile loop to cross-country skiers: Leave Cardigan Lodge, go down the Lower Manning Trail to the 93Z Ski Trail. Follow the 93Z Ski Trail to the Duke’s Ski Trail, which opens to a meadow. The Manning Trail, named after three brothers who were killed while hiking in 1924, takes a skier back to the lodge.

Cardigan Lodge: www.outdoors.org/cardigan. Appalachian Mountain Club reservations, (603) 466-2727; Mondays through Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or www.outdoors.org/reservations.

NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT

Just two hours north of New York City awaits an expanse of woods that looks as if it could be in northern New England. J. T. Horn, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, recommends a part of the Appalachian Trail to cross-country skiers and snowshoers that offers a big climb, a big descent and a big river.

The route starts near Kent, Conn., a small town on Route 7. Turn onto Route 341, then right onto Skiff Mountain Road, which crosses the Appalachian Trail, the start of the tour. The trail climbs about three-quarters of a mile to the top of Caleb’s Peak. Continue another three-quarters of a mile and you reach St. John’s Ledges, with a view of Kent and the Housatonic River Valley.


Ski poles can help on the half-mile descent to River Road, which is not plowed. Pass through a gate to continue north on the Appalachian Trail, along the bank of the Housatonic River as it passes below Skiff Mountain. This section, Mr. Horn said, is nearly flat and ideal for cross-country skiing. The trail passes the Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-To and the Stony Brook Campsite, then crosses open fields before intersecting with River Road, 6.6 miles from the start of the journey.

The Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-To and the Stony Brook Campsite are both official Appalachian Trail campsites and are free to use on a first-come first-served basis. Lean-tos are three-sided structures with roofs. Campsites are for tents. Mr. Horn points out that no fires are allowed on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut, so winter campers should plan accordingly.


NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

New Jersey has 10 state parks and forests that offer camping facilities year round. Dana Loschiavo, of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, recommends Stokes State Forest, which has panoramic vistas, as well as winter activities like ice fishing, ice skating, sledding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing.

Stokes is off Route 206, four miles north of Branchville, virtually at the northernmost tip of the state. A 9.3-mile section of the Appalachian Trail cuts through the 16,356-acre forest along the Kittatinny Ridge.

Some of the park’s 51 tent and trailer sites are open all year and have fire rings and picnic tables. The fee is $20 a night. There are also nine lean-tos available year round with fire rings and picnic tables. The fee is $30 a night. The state advises that reservations be made.

To the south, near Blairstown and off Interstate 80, the Mohican Outdoor Center in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area has cabins and tent sites year round. This 70,000-acre area, near the Appalachian Trail, includes cross-country skiing at Blue Mountain Lakes, downhill skiing at Shawnee Mountain Ski Area and ice climbing at the Delaware Water Gap.

The Appalachian Mountain Club operates two cabins and four lodges there for rates that range from $21 a night for an adult club member Monday through Thursday night to $25 a night for a nonmember for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights

NORTH-CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

The Susquehannock Trail System is an 85-mile network of skiing, hiking and snowshoe trails through the rolling, maple-and-beech-blanketed Allegheny Mountains in remote Potter County. The terrain is moderate throughout the 265,000-acre state forest, with long ridges of even height. Besides the maples and beeches, there are stands of black cherry, hemlocks, pines and Norway spruces. According to www.visitpa.com, the trails cover old and new logging roads and an abandoned logging railroad.

The network of trails traverses the Susquehannock State Forest, which includes Ole Bull and Patterson State Parks, Hammersly Wild Area and the Cherry Springs Fire Tower. There are several ponds in the region used for ice fishing. And there is star-gazing under optimal conditions at Cherry Springs State Park, especially in winter.

The forest is accessible near the county seat, Coudersport, and there are several campgrounds near the entrance to the forest. Among those recommended by Cindy Capatch, of the Potter County Visitors Association, is the Potter County Family Campground, off Route 6 east of town.

Rates at the campground, which is open year round, range from $17 a night for a campsite with no hookups to $42 for a heated camping cabin. The campground sits about eight miles west of Ski Denton, which has Alpine and cross-country skiing, snow tubing and snowboarding.

New York City Ballet is presenting the George Balanchine classic at the New York State Theater.

(Dance)

Lush Movement to Break Winter’s Spell
Snowflakes fell in New York on Wednesday, but none onstage at Lincoln Center. New York City Ballet had closed its annual season of George Balanchine’s “Nutcracker” with a particularly bright performance on Sunday. On Wednesday it opened its eight-week winter repertory season with an account of Balanchine’s “Jewels.” “The Nutcracker” is narrative; “Jewels” has its place in history as “the first abstract full-evening ballet” (as it was billed when new in 1967). Both ballets serve as ideal introductions to what dance theater has to offer; and both are classics that repay innumerable rewatchings.

One of the best reasons for watching City Ballet these days is listening, especially when its music director, Fayçal Karoui, is conducting. In the final “Nutcracker” performances the orchestra actually sounded as if it was having even more fun than the dancers. The don’t-miss-this castanets during the Spanish dance made me laugh aloud, and the string section delivered a brilliant contrast between loud and quiet pizzicati in the Chinese dance.

Mr. Karoui’s rhythm and accentuation grow only keener when there’s an occasional blip in the orchestral playing. There were two brief lapses of coordination in one post-Christmas “Nutcracker” matinee, and a hiccup during the oboe melody that opened the Andante elegiaco movement in Wednesday’s performance of the Tchaikovsky score for “Diamonds” (the closing third of “Jewels”). Still such flaws never made these performances lackluster. On Wednesday the Fauré music for the opening “Emeralds” sounded especially sensuous.

There have been a lot of “Jewels” about of late. City Ballet closed its spring season with it in June, and since then I have traveled to see Miami City Ballet and the Royal Ballet in Britain. The Paris Opera Ballet’s account is on DVD, and the Kirov Ballet’s performances early in this decade left powerful impressions. A true balletomane in such circumstances should respond by attending to who danced what better or best. But Wednesday’s curtain no sooner rose on “Emeralds,” looking in Peter Harvey’s décor like not just jewelry but also a lusciously deep late-summer garden where dew hangs heavy on spider webs between the leaves, and I found myself plunged deep into the ballet itself.

Why is it that ballets like these are so rewatchable? Balanchine knew how to construct a ballet in five dimensions — the three dimensions of space; the fourth of time; the fifth of imagination, resonance, drama and memory — so that, watching and listening in the theater, we are made extraordinarily alive and responsive.

His sheer grasp of theater seems far larger than that of most major directors. Take the entrances and exits in “Jewels” alone. In both “Emeralds” and “Diamonds,” there is a pas de deux that starts with man and woman entering from opposite sides of the stage and looking at each other as if across a vast terrain.

In “Emeralds” they both enter from the back, then, locked into each other’s eyes (each with one arm powerfully raised), process forward, formally, slowly, powerfully distanced; only then do they come together. In “Diamonds” they enter from diametrically opposed corners, stand, partner addressing partner, as if across an infinity and then advance — formally again — along gently zigzagging paths (which seem dictated by the music) until they meet center stage.

As for exits, just look at those in which Balanchine has dancers retreat into the wings backwards. The leading man of “Rubies” has a famous exit jump, vaulting off while hailing the action onstage (like the famous Parthian shot in which the archers released their load while leaving the field). This was a specialty of Edward Villella, who originated this role, but here it registers as drama.

The second ballerina of the same piece has a slow, strange, retreating exit toward the wings, repeatedly pausing, on flat foot, to raise her rear leg high in one powerful arabesque penchée after another as she goes. The closing dance of “Emeralds” starts with a beautiful fanlike tableau that melts as the 10 women of the corps de ballet slowly pace back, back, back — they seem to be reluctantly withdrawing from a spell — before leaving the stage for the 7 lead dancers.

Then there are dance motifs. In all three ballets dancers walk, walk, walk; and, in the Stravinsky “Rubies,” jog. In all three, dancers bend right forward to the floor, bring fingers together, then rise erect and, opening arms apart now, arch back (a grand port de bras); and variations occur on this to-and-fro bending-and-opening throughout, not least during the several pas de deux, where such upper body motions become powerful expressions of intimate needs and reactions.

Everybody sees these things in any performance of “Jewels,” but since there is so much to see, it can take years before some of them truly register in terms of meaning and before we have a full sense of just what world we’re watching onstage.
I must have often seen how some of the lead dancers of “Emeralds” shield their eyes for a moment during that closing septet; the shielding of eyes is one of the most famous dramatic motifs in Balanchine dance theater. But had I noticed before Wednesday? Certainly it struck me as if for the first time; other points too.
Emeralds,” with its double aura of both perfumed Romanticism and medieval chivalrous romance, looked freshest on Wednesday. The first ballerina role here is a good one for Ashley Bouder, just because it takes her out of the bright flash in which she excels and into less familiar zones of poetic mystery, and she dances it lovingly. Coming down the stage’s center line toward the audience in a series of pirouettes on point, she contrasts fast turns with lingering ones with such dynamic clarity that we’re newly held, as we are by the rich pliancy of her upper body.

Sara Mearns, in the second role, is a dancer of similarly luscious tone and pointed dance nuance. I begin to see why she has been given some of the repertory’s foremost roles and am keen to watch what she can do with them.

“Rubies” was dominated by Teresa Reichlen’s account of the second ballerina, whom she makes its mistress of ceremonies, turning in one knee across another (with a lavish downward arm gesture) with the same inscrutable authority as elsewhere she hurls a leg to the sky.

As the leading couple, Megan Fairchild and Benjamin Millepied gave polite and perky performances that surely need attack and texture of an altogether more potent order.

Wendy Whelan, the company’s senior ballerina as far as most of its prima roles go, led “Diamonds” with such authority that she won the evening’s biggest ovation. Though her authority is unquestionable, to my eye Ms. Whelan’s upper and lower body just aren’t ideally coordinated, and her movements aren’t fully finished. There is a particular tension in her shoulders that often seems to block the flow of movement into her arms, so that it’s like hearing a famous singer who often sings sharp.

This is the kind of problem one doesn’t enjoy addressing because Ms. Whelan’s authority is earned out of the best kind of dance honesty: She isn’t a superficially showy dancer, she doesn’t try to leave out steps, and she is riveting simply by her attention to movement.

Cast changes in “Jewels” lie ahead, and many other repertory programs over the weeks to come. These programs will remind us of the continuing difficulties of Life After Balanchine. In the meantime it is good just to go to see his choreography and, when concentration and conditions allow, to enter ever deeper into it. Its riches do not pall.