Another great form of multimedia

I accidentally discovered another kind of multimedia this week, all thanks to my Dad.

I wasn’t sure anyone still used snail-mail until I moved into my own apartment at school and started receiving—literally—weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) letters from my dad. They rarely have any real message in them, but just one or two newspaper clippings that reminded him of me. (I’m not sure my dad knows how to go online yet actually, but hey, he’s supporting print newspapers!)

One of the articles he sends every week is a Sunday New York Times fashion column by Bill Cunningham. Cunningham is actually a photographer, but, as we know will be required of us when we find jobs, is multi-tasking by writing the column that is surrounded by his photos.

It was just this week that I realized there was a URL and keyword at the bottom. I checked it out, and every week, Cunningham produces a ‘narrated slideshow’ of his photos. So here, a fashion photographer is still doing what he loves, but also writing the column and narrating a compilation of his photos. So don’t give up hope!

The slideshows are pretty interesting, if you like fashion. If not, I’m sure theTimes online uses this feature in other areas of interest. Here is a link to one I just watched: Cunningham talks about how fashions changes in direct relation to how the economy changes.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/10/fashion/20090110-street-feature/index.html

Here’s what it looks like in print, courtesy of my dad, possibly the only snail-mailing newspaper reader left: