The City That Never Needs to Turn On the Lights

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy plunged lower Manhattan into darkness. For days, residents south of 39th Street stumbled through pitch-black stairwells, charged phones in idling cars, and watched the skyline above them blaze with electricity they couldn't reach. Photographer Iwan Baan captured it from a helicopter — half the island glowing, half swallowed by shadow. The line between light and dark cut through the city like a wound.…