Hurricane Sandy Covered by Time Magazine Utilizing Instagram

Hurricane Sandy Covered by Time Magazine Utilizing Instagram

We know that Instagram is a great way to snap and share everyday moments with friends and family. But as Time Magazine found out, Instagram can also be used as a powerful tool when it comes to photojournalism.

As the storm closed in on the coast Monday morning, Time’s Director of Photography, Kira Pollack, rounded up five photographers from the region and gave them access to the magazine’s Instagram feed. The photographers it sought out – Michael Christopher Brown, Benjamin Lowy, Ed Kashi, Andrew Quilty and Stephen Wilkes — are all heavy users of the Facebook-owned social photo platform.

According to Forbes, Pollack also pointed out that it began as an experiment motivated by necessity -- to get breaking news coverage out to their readers in the fastest and "most direct route." The resulting image gallery even became a huge hit on Lightbox, Time Magazine's photography blog.

One of Benjamin Lowy’s photos even ended up getting selected for the cover, although it’s one of three covers Time is running this week. (Outside the northeast, readers will see one of two election-related covers.) While the level of resolution isn’t perhaps what might be achieved with a camera, says Pollack, “It reproduced beautifully. There’s almost a painterly quality to it.”

Source: Time, via Forbes