Shannon L. O’Halloran #DSS2017 story, ‘Poppy Was Here’

Get your free tickets to the Digital Short Story 2017 reception at SVA!

Shannon L. O’Halloran’s ‘Poppy was Here’ will be on view at #DSS2017!

Shannon is a visual artist and storyteller. She has a B.A. in creative writing and photography from Columbia College Chicago and is in the M.F.A. Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts. She is interested in evocative storytelling- that is less based on a narrative approach and more about individual moments and feelings. She is the founder and Creative Director at The Still Film Co. – a new form of storytelling for the digital age. You can follow her @stillfilmco and @shannon_ohalloran and see her work at www.slohalloran.com and www.stillfilm.co

So what’s her story about?

Poppy is a woman desperate for love and understanding, but she searches for it in all the wrong people. She begins working in a flower shop and discovers her true passion, but can she keep this new sense of self?

Read our interview below the sneak peek (click on the small dots to move from image to image in the gallery).

You probably have a thousand story ideas in your head. What made you decide on this story for your DSS project?

I feel like this story reflected a recent period in my life of personal growth. I am often drawn to emotional evolution stories, especially about women. I was also watching a lot of old French New Wave films when the semester started!

Your story touches on a lot of complex subjects. Love, self, choice. What drew you to flowers as an integral part of your story?

I felt like the flower was the perfect symbol for a woman’s growth – feminine, hardy, needs to be tended to and watered. Not to mention, they photograph beautifully.

So that’s why you went with photography as the medium? Is that the media you’re most interested in?

It’s definitely the medium that I have the most experience with. Even when most people went digital, I have been using film for over ten years. This project was shot entirely on medium format Kodak Portra film. I am drawn to both photography and film and have always been interested in how text works with an image.

What do you hope people take away from your story?

A reflection on modern dating in the age of Tinder.