Iconic Hurricane Sandy photo of blacked-out NYC helps win “Cover of the Year” award

An aerial photo that quickly became an iconic image of Hurricane Sandy has helped New York magazine win the coveted "Cover of the Year" award from the American Society of Magazine Editors in its annual National Magazine Awards contest. The shot, captured from a helicopter by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, shows New York City half blacked out following the storm.

The image was shot on October 31, 2012 and shows the city's powerless southern end mostly blacked-out in the wake of Sandy, while the more fortunate midtown and northern areas are still lit.

Baan discussed how the shot came to be in a follow-up story in New York magazine. The most difficult part of the shoot, he said, was trying to find an available helicopter that would take him over Manhattan.

"I started to call around the pilots that I usually use, but they were already out of gas or power or on a rescue mission, so none of them could help," he told New York. "I finally found one about an hour and a half drive away in Long Island, but they said they only accepted cash because the hangar didn't have power. Luckily, I had also gone to the ATM before the storm and I had enough cash with me, so it all lined up perfectly."

 

 

Baan credits his Canon EOS-1D X for helping him get the image. He shot the scene wide open with Canon's EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, and the 1D X was set at ISO 25,000 with a shutter speed of 1/40th second.

“[It was] the kind of shot which was impossible to take before this camera was there,” Baan told Poynter in an interview.

The image ended up on the November 12, 2012 cover of New York magazine, under the title "The City and the Storm." The cover also won the "News and Poltics" cover prize in ASME's National Magazine Awards.

To see all of the ASME cover award winners, click here.

(Via Complex)