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Commentary: Tom Newby Honored Us
Created: September 11, 2025, Written by Matt Trulio
When Powerboat magazine chief photographer Tom Newby captured an image of raceboats roaring through New York City on the Hudson River, he had no idea it would become the photo of his career. Not long after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, Powerboat produced a poster using the image with the United States flag ghosted in the background. Proceeds of the posters were donated to family members who perished that day.
Newby shot tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of photographs during his career. By his exacting standards, the one used in the poster was merely average from a technical perspective. But it took on greater meaning and became iconic, at least in the high-performance world, a few months after the towers fell.
You will see it all over social media today. Chances are, it will take your breath.
Six years later to that awful morning, the then-51-year old photographer joined the more than 3,000 people who were murdered in 2001. A helicopter crash during a photo shoot in Sarasota, Fla., claimed his life and that of videographer Mark Copeland, who was shooting for the magazine for the first time.
Tom Newby.
There is nothing poetic or ironic about the coincidence of those two events. There is only the sorrow and anguish that is still fresh from both. If we could erase one or the other or both we surely would.
But the connection remains, and in its own way Tom Newby’s work continues to honor us all.
