Poppies,
Mirrored 
(1998)

      by Dan Senn

2020 update


      
 

      
 See video
(4:19)
Note: Listen using head-
phones or a large
sound system.



      
In the neighborhood of Shy
      Anne Studio, near the first of three studios I constructed with my own hands between 1994 and 2021, here, a 1000 sf metal covered building built
      in 1994 in north Tacoma, there lived an elderly woman in a small house
      surrounded by a picket fence and apple trees. The fence hadn't
      been painted in many years, the apple trees grew as if wild, and the woman rarely, if ever, cut her lawn. And for all of this, though it probably
      affected property values in 1998 (two homes have been built on this land now), I was very thankful as half of her lawn had been overtaken by gloriously beautiful red
      poppies.

      
One warm summer evening, while
      my family was out on an errand, I felt a surge of boldness, grabbed
      my HI8 camera and tripod and went to this poppie patch hoping o shoot video. I first made a measily attempt to get approval for the lady of the house and then decided to shoot from legal ground,
      that is, from the sidewalk and just over the outer fence.

      
Poppies, Mirrored is a short study of this small
      field of wild flowers. The video is edited in-camera and accompanied by Prague street sounds and wrinkling paper. The Sony Hi8  camcorder I used for this work was replaced by a Sony VX-1000 both of which shot at 720x480 pixels, the best resolution at the time.
 
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