We have talked a lot about photojournalism and the creation of iconic images that not only define the instant, but can also effect great change.  In our modern electronic world, images bombard us continuously and can to use, the latest vernacular term – go viral.  Watching an image evolve in this way is like the experience an astronomer has witnessing the birth of a star in the cauldrons of the universe.

So I offer you, as example, the magnificent photograph taken by Dutch architectural photographer Iwan Baan of New York City in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.  This is the cover photograph of the latest issue of New York Magazine showing the city split in two by power outages.  Baan explains this photograph in Poynter Magazine: “It was the only way to show that New York was two cities, almost.  One was almost like a third world country where everything was becoming scarce. Everything was complicated. And then another was a completely vibrant, alive New York.”

Other Baan images of the hurricanes aftermath may be found at De Magazine Zeen. Baan took to the air to obtain the cover photo.  I think that we will be seeing this picture for a long time to come – an icon in the making.