LOST AND FOUND: Discover a black and white era in full color
Analyzing a multimedia story package
by Julio Huerta
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/2012/cushman/
The focus of the story is photography, particularly color photography at a time when almost no one was shooting in color, a time that some call a black and white era. The multimedia package shows the photographic journey of an amateur photographer named Charles W. Cushman. His collection and the significance of preserving it.
The story form was a narrative starting with a brief introduction that follows by a series of color photographs in a slideshow that little by little reveals the work of Cushman and his vision. For this particular story, I think it was a very effective simple way to tell the journey. The ultimate goal was to illustrate the work of the photographer and show key moments of his personal life. This made the presentation very simple and effective because the photographer had already done most of the work. The storyteller practically all it had to do was narrate the story and show the photographs exactly in the way they were shot. I understand that there were almost 15,000 photographs and that in itself is a lot of work to go through. But the photographer also left some notebooks with notes of his work. I think this also helped the storyteller, best and accurately narrate his story.
The navigational process was very easy to follow because the slideshow runs automatically and the design was very simple and visually appealing. There is very little interaction needed to start the slideshow and it was not confusion at all.
The strengths of the package was the visuals. Even if you are not a photography lover, to have a chance to take a peek at that time that Cushman was documenting is a real treat. The photographs are beautiful and that is the strongest elements.
I am having a hard time finding a weakness to this package, because it was so perfectly executed. The only thing that it leaves you is wanting to see more of the photographs.
The most significant concept is that I got from this package was the value of simplicity. Sometimes less is more. What I mean by that is that this package is very straight to the point kind of package. It focused on what was the main attraction the photographs. The photography is a part of the whole story from beginning to end and I think this is what makes this particular story a good one to tell in this way.