This year’s “Reasons to Love New York” cover is an image taken on 33rd Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue by photographer Ben Lowy, who has been making collages on his iPhone using a technique where he walks down the street and takes a picture every few seconds. “Sometimes it’s 50 pictures. Sometimes it’s 100 pictures,” New York Magazine photo editor Marvin Orellaña explains. “Then he’ll take an app and compress it into a mash-up — into one big collage of time.”
“One of the things we loved about this particular image is that once you look at it you start diving deeper and deeper and deeper into the picture,” says photo director Jody Quon, who feels the end result is reminiscent of Georges Braque’s New York. “It’s a very engaging image that speaks to the hustle and bustle of the crowds, the density, which is itself one of the great reasons for loving New York.”