war photographer analysis essay

War Photographer Summary & Analysis by Carol Ann Duffy

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"War Photographer" is a poem by Scottish writer Carol Ann Duffy, the United Kingdom's poet laureate from 2009 to 2019. Originally published in 1985, "War Photographer" depicts the experiences of a photographer who returns home to England to develop the hundreds of photos he has taken in an unspecified war zone. The photographer wrestles with the trauma of what he has seen and his bitterness that the people who view his images are unable to empathize fully with the victims of catastrophic violence abroad. The poem references a number of major historical air strikes and clearly draws imagery from Nick Ut's famous Vietnam War photograph of children fleeing the devastation of a napalm bomb.

• Read the full text of “War Photographer”

The Full Text of “War Photographer”

“war photographer” summary, “war photographer” themes.

Apathy, Empathy, and the Horrors of War

Lines 13-15, lines 15-18.

• Lines 19-24

Trauma and Memory

Lines 11-12.

• Lines 13-18

The Ethics of Documenting War

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “war photographer”.

In his dark ... ... in ordered rows.

The only light ... ... intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom ... flesh is grass.

He has a ... ... seem to now.

Rural England. Home ... ... weather can dispel,

to fields which ... ... a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. ... ... a half-formed ghost.

He remembers the ... ... into foreign dust.

Lines 19-21

A hundred agonies ... ... for Sunday’s supplement.

Lines 21-22

The reader’s eyeballs ... ... and pre-lunch beers.

Lines 23-24

From the aeroplane ... ... do not care.

“War Photographer” Symbols

Photographs

• Line 2: “with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
• Line 7: “Solutions slop in trays”
• Lines 13-15: “A stranger’s features / faintly start to twist before his eyes, / a half-formed ghost”
• Line 19: “A hundred agonies in black and white”

“War Photographer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

• Line 2: “s,” “s,” “s”
• Line 4: “th,” “th”
• Line 5: “pr,” “pr”
• Line 6: “B,” “B,” “P,” “P”
• Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “s”
• Line 8: “h,” “h,” “th”
• Line 9: “th”
• Line 13: “S,” “s,” “t,” “f”
• Line 14: “f,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “t”
• Line 16: “h,” “h”
• Line 17: “w,” “w,” “w”
• Line 20: “s”
• Line 21: “S,” “s”
• Line 22: “b,” “b,” “b”
• Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.”
• Lines 11-12: “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet / of running children in a nightmare heat.”
• Line 6: “All flesh is grass.”
• Line 1: “I,” “i”
• Line 2: “o”
• Line 3: “o,” “o”
• Line 4: “ou,” “e,” “u,” “e”
• Line 5: “ie,” “a”
• Line 6: “e,” “a,” “e,” “e,” “a”
• Line 8: “i,” “i,” “i,” “e,” “e”
• Line 10: “i,” “i,” “ea,” “e”
• Line 11: “ie,” “o,” “o,” “ea,” “ee”
• Line 13: “i,” “i,” “i,” “a,” “e,” “u”
• Line 14: “ai”
• Line 15: “ie”
• Line 16: “i”
• Line 17: “o,” “o,” “a,” “o,” “o,” “u”
• Line 18: “oo,” “u”
• Line 19: “a,” “a,” “a”
• Line 20: “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i”
• Line 21: “u,” “u,” “i”
• Line 22: “i,” “ea,” “ee,” “e,” “ee”
• Line 23: “a,” “a,” “a,” “e”
• Line 24: “i,” “i”
• Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All”
• Line 7: “do. Solutions”
• Line 8: “hands, which”
• Line 9: “now. Rural England. Home”
• Line 13: “happening. A”
• Line 15: “ghost. He”
• Line 16: “wife, how”
• Line 21: “supplement. The”
• Line 1: “r,” “r,” “n,” “ll,” “l,” “n”
• Line 2: “s,” “l,” “s,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “r,” “d,” “r,” “d,” “r”
• Line 3: “l,” “l,” “l,” “l”
• Line 5: “pr,” “pr,” “p,” “r,” “t,” “t,” “ss”
• Line 6: “B,” “s,” “t,” “B,” “t,” “P,” “n,” “P,” “n,” “ll,” “l”
• Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “l,” “sl”
• Line 8: “h,” “s,” “h,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “th”
• Line 9: “th,” “R,” “r,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 10: “n,” “p,” “n,” “w,” “p,” “l,” “w,” “d,” “p,” “l”
• Line 11: “l,” “d,” “d,” “pl,” “d,” “th,” “th”
• Line 12: “n,” “n”
• Line 13: “S,” “str,” “r,” “s,” “t,” “r,” “s”
• Line 14: “f,” “t,” “st,” “t,” “t,” “t,” “st”
• Line 15: “f,” “f”
• Line 16: “w,” “h,” “w,” “h”
• Line 17: “w,” “w,” “d,” “d,” “w,” “eo”
• Line 18: “d,” “st,” “d,” “d,” “st”
• Line 21: “S,” “s,” “s,” “s,” “r”
• Line 22: “t,” “rs,” “b,” “tw,” “th,” “b,” “th,” “r,” “b,” “rs”
• Line 23: “s,” “r,” “ss,” “r”
• Line 24: “r,” “s,” “s”

End-Stopped Line

• Line 2: “rows.”
• Line 3: “glows,”
• Line 5: “Mass.”
• Line 6: “grass.”
• Line 10: “dispel,”
• Line 12: “heat.”
• Line 14: “eyes,”
• Line 18: “dust.”
• Line 22: “beers.”
• Line 24: “care.”
• Lines 1-2: “alone / with”
• Lines 4-5: “he / a”
• Lines 7-8: “trays / beneath”
• Lines 8-9: “then / though”
• Lines 9-10: “again / to”
• Lines 11-12: “feet / of”
• Lines 13-14: “features / faintly”
• Lines 15-16: “cries / of”
• Lines 16-17: “approval / without”
• Lines 17-18: “must / and”
• Lines 19-20: “white / from”
• Lines 20-21: “six / for”
• Lines 21-22: “prick / with”
• Lines 23-24: “where / he”
• Line 2: “spools of suffering”
• Line 6: “All flesh is grass”

Parallelism

• Lines 10-11: “to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, / to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet”
• Lines 16-18: “how he sought approval / without words to do what someone must / and how the blood stained into foreign dust.”
• Lines 4-5: “as though this were a church and he / a priest preparing to intone a Mass.”

“War Photographer” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• "All flesh is grass"
• Sunday's supplement
• Impassively
• (Location in poem: Line 1: “dark room”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “War Photographer”

Rhyme scheme, “war photographer” speaker, “war photographer” setting, literary and historical context of “war photographer”, more “war photographer” resources, external resources.

"War Photographer" Read Aloud — Listen to the poem read aloud.

Trailer for the Documentary "War Photographer" — Watch the trailer for the 2011 documentary War Photographer, which explores the responsibilities of photographers in war zones, focusing on photographer James Nachtwey.

"The Terror of War" — Explore Nick Ut's image from the Vietnam War, "The Terror of War." This famous photograph may have inspired "War Photographer." Note the second photographer at the right of the image examining his camera as children run by him, burnt and naked.

Carol Ann Duffy Biography — Learn more about Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's first female Poet Laureate, on Poets.org.

Interview with War Photographer Nick Ut — Watch this NBC interview with Vietnam War photographer Nick Ut about taking his famous photo depicting the naked "Napalm Girl" and the responsibility of photographers in war zones. Ut's comments intersect potently with the themes explored in "War Photographer."

LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

A Child's Sleep

Anne Hathaway

Before You Were Mine

Death of a Teacher

Education For Leisure

Elvis's Twin Sister

Head of English

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

In Your Mind

Little Red Cap

Mrs Lazarus

Mrs Sisyphus

Pilate's Wife

Pygmalion's Bride

Queen Herod

Recognition

Standing Female Nude

The Darling Letters

The Dolphins

The Good Teachers

Warming Her Pearls

We Remember Your Childhood Well

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy – Poem Analysis

Here are some notes, analyses, and annotations for the poem ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. It’s a fascinating poem! Although I don’t always like Duffy’s poems, this is my absolute favorite of hers; I really love how it’s so personal and thought-provoking.

My analysis is tailored towards the Edexcel IGCSE Literature Poetry Anthology and the AQA GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Cluster, but it’s useful for anyone studying the poem at any level, on any exam board (including OCR, CIE / Cambridge, CCEA, WJEC / Eduqas).

Thanks for reading! If you find this document useful, you can take the full Edexcel IGCSE Poetry course .

Here’s a full AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology List .

War Photographer

“In his dark room he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows, as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass…” Carol Ann Duffy

(Full poem unable to be reproduced due to copyright)

War Photographer – Poem Analysis

Dark room —  a dark enclosed space that is used to develop photographs (non-digital photographs are sensitive to light, so they have to be processed in the dark, with only a low red light to see by).

Intone a Mass —  to deliver a speech or sermon for a Mass in a flat, non — variable tone of voice. A  Mass  is a Roman Catholic ceremony of worship where Catholics receive the Eucharist — they eat a wafer and drink wine, which symbolically represents the body and blood of Jesus Christ respectively (this process is called ‘transubstantiation’). In the poem, the type of Mass being referred to in the first stanza would be a funeral service.

Agonies —  feelings of extreme pain.

Impassively —  showing or feeling no emotions.

Spool  — a circular device that holds film or photography tape.

Sunday’s supplement  — an extra small publication that’s sent along with the regular newspaper on Sundays for people to read, usually for leisure and entertainment.

STORY/SUMMARY

Stanza 1:  The speaker tells us of a photographer who is alone in his dark room, developing photographs that he has recently taken. He sets the photographs (which are of people suffering in war) out in rows to look at them, and this process is compared to a priest preparing his Mass. The final line lists cities that were sites of war — the Irish and British conflict in Belfast, the civil war in Lebanon (Beirut), and the civil war in Cambodia (Phnom Penh), before commenting that ‘all flesh is grass’, a phrase which reminds us that human life is transient and that after a death we all return to the earth.

Stanza 2:  We’re told that the photographer has a job to complete — when he was taking the photos his hands didn’t tremble, but they do now. He’s back home in Rural England, the English countryside is calm and peaceful, any worries he may have can here be fixed with good weather — unlike the countries where he took the photographs, where the fields exploded as children ran through them, away from conflict.

Stanza 3:  This stanza shifts focus to a particular photograph that’s developing before his eyes — he remembers the man and his wife, how they were suffering and he took a photograph of them because ‘someone must’, despite the fact that he didn’t ask them directly if it was ok to document their pain. It says that ‘he sought approval’ but ‘without words’, so perhaps they just accepted that he was taking photos, or they were in too much pain to truly notice or communicate with him. The final line may refer to the blood of this couple, or the blood of others at the scene where they were photographed — it provides us with a lasting shocking image of blood-stained earth in the aftermath of war and conflict.

Stanza 4:  We have another focal shift in the final stanza, which zooms out to ‘a hundred agonies’ that the photographer documented, as we realize this man and his wife were just one small example of the suffering endured by many. The photographer’s editor has to pick only a few of these images to show to the public in a Sunday newspaper supplement. The reader of this supplement will be briefly upset by the images, in between taking a bath and going for a beer with their friends. We’re left with a final image of the photographer, who stares emotionlessly out of the airplane window at the land below, knowing it is a country torn by conflict, where he’s being sent to earn money by taking photographs.

SPEAKER/VOICE

The speaker uses a third-person omniscient voice to shift between the photographer and other figures in the poem — the husband and wife in the photograph, the editor of the supplement, the readers who experience the images through the media.

These figures are all unnamed — to show they represent general people, rather than specific individuals, which gives a wider picture of society as a whole and how it reacts to distant war. There is a  cynical tone  expressed in the poem, where Duffy comments on the ironic and insensitive way in which we consume media — only seeing a small proportion of what really goes on in any war or conflict, and only experiencing even that for a few seconds in the relative comfort of our lives. The effect is to make us think more deeply about the ethics of war and war documentation — the photographer himself is only doing it for ‘a living’, to make money — and also to make us really appreciate the comfort and stability that we live in, our own worries and troubles are so minor in comparison to the people suffering in the middle of conflicts.

Sibilance — ‘ spools of suffering ’  uses sibilance to draw attention to the images that are recorded on the spools of photography film, the ‘s’ repeated also imitates a sharp hissing or spitting sound — perhaps to imitate the sense of pain and suffering that the photographer’s subjects went through.

Simile — ‘ as though this were a church’ makes us think of the religious and spiritual aspects of war, given that many wars are fought over religious beliefs, as well as the way in which the media in the modern world functions as a quasi-religion — people become obsessed with certain stories and hold strong opinions and beliefs, especially regarding the politics of conflict. The simile is  extended  in the phrase ‘he/a priest preparing to intone a Mass’, making it seem as if the photographer’s function in the modern world is similar to the traditional function of a priest — to make people think more deeply about spiritual and philosophical questions, and perhaps to explore or explain the reasons for evil and suffering in the world. This also creates a  solemn tone  that continues throughout the first stanza, where we realise that many of the photographs will now be documenting the dead — a sentiment that is reinforced in the final  short sentence  ‘All flesh is grass’, a quotation from the Old Testament in the Bible that reminds us that human lives are very short and fragile.

Colour symbolism —  we are told that ‘the only light is red’, suggesting that the colour is significant (beyond the practical reason of it being the only possible way to light a darkroom without spoiling the photos). Red could symbolise passion, or blood and violence, and it perhaps foreshadows the later  visual image  of ‘blood stained into foreign dust’.

Holophrasis —  Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. — this is a technique where a whole idea or phrase is expressed just using a single world — Duffy compresses the wars, conflicts and political and social turmoil of these locations into single words or names of cities where the wars took place — in some ways it is powerful how just the name of a city can conjure up so many associations and so much history (the  plosive ‘b’ and ‘p’ sounds  hint towards violence and explosions), but in others it seems reductive — like it is only a small snapshot of what goes on; we don’t know enough to properly respect and understand what went on in these places, a few photographs in a newspaper in an article about the place isn’t going to do it justice, and yet that’s all most of us ever experience of modern war and conflict — very few of Duffy’s readers will have experienced and understood what it means to live in a state of war first hand.

Double entendre  — ‘solutions slop in trays’ — the word ‘solutions’ is used ironically to refer literally to the developing liquid that is used for processing photographs (which is called ‘a solution’), and also to the idea of solving or finding a solution that will end the wars.

Synecdoche —  ‘his hands, which did not tremble then/ though seem to now’ — the ‘hands’ are used to represent the whole person of the photographer (a technique we call ‘synecdoche’), as we realise that they are trembling finally as he looks over the horrific images he has captured. The ‘tremble’ is ambiguous, however — it could be because he is concentrating very hard on getting the photos to develop properly, as this takes a lot of effort. Otherwise, we may interpret that he has finally become emotionally impacted by his job and is starting to feel sorry for the people he met on his travels through war-torn countries.

Metaphor  — ‘a half-formed ghost’ — this visual image describes the face of the man as it develops on the photograph, but it also may suggest that his soul or character had been half destroyed by the stress and fear of living amidst conflict. The  compound adjective  ‘half-formed’ perhaps also refers to the photographer himself, suggesting that the memory of the man is half-formed in his mind and starting to come back to him, as he remembers other things about his particular situation.

Assonance  — the final lines contain many words that half-rhyme ‘stare’ ‘aeroplane’ ‘ where’ ‘care’ and ‘earn’, repeating sounds that convey a sense.

FORM/STRUCTURE

ABBACC rhyme scheme —  there is a regular rhyme scheme to each stanza, perhaps showing the regularity and monotony of the photographer’s work, which he seems to view as similar to any other job rather than understanding it has special importance. There are two couplets within this rhyme scheme — BB and CC. Couplets generally signify harmony and peace, as well as love and connection. The disrupted ‘A’’ rhyme may then be interpreted as symbolizing the disharmony and separation that war creates within families, something which is explored further in the description of the man whose wife ‘cries’ as ‘blood’ spills on the land. The man is a ‘stranger’ to the photographer, which again emphasizes the lack of connection.

Sestets —  the poem is set out regularly in sestets (six-line stanzas) — perhaps to show the repetitive regularity of the photographer’s job, which is so comfortable and almost numbing in comparison with the chaos of the subjects he depicts in his work.

Short sentences  — some sentences in the poem seem abrupt and almost too short, they disrupt the flow of the poem and make us feel shocked or stunned. For example, the sentence ‘He has a job to do..’ seems short and matter-of-fact, almost as if it’s revealing the photographer’s own thoughts and attitude to his work — it’s just a job that pays money, like any other, he has learned to detach himself emotionally from the horrors that he sees and documents with his lens.

Enjambment —  enjambment is often used in the poem to create an expectation, which is then disrupted or embellished in the second line. One example is ‘A hundred agonies in black and white / from which his editor will pick out five or six’, the numbers are used in almost an  antithesis —  we realize that there are hundreds of photographs, and thousands or more who suffer, and of all these stories and lives that are disrupted only a few will make it to the newspaper, and even then people will read about them for a few moments, look at their pictures a couple of times, and then go back to their daily lives. Duffy aims to create a sense of frustration and perhaps guilt in the reader, as well as a wider awareness of how lucky we are to live peacefully and comfortably in our countries, as well as exposing the way in which media affects a lot of people’s lives and opinions, but really is only able to give us a small snippet of information about any given subject.

We adopt a voyeuristic attitude to war and conflict —  the term ‘voyeurism’ in this sense refers to the idea that people almost enjoy or are entertained by learning about the war, death, and suffering, in a gratuitous sense. We read about it in ‘supplement[s]’, as if it’s an add-on to our lives, perhaps something to talk about over ‘drinks’ with friends. We may feel impacted briefly by it, but ultimately it makes no large difference to our daily routines, and we do nothing to change the situation for the better. Duffy criticizes those who read the newspapers and learn about far off wars from the comfort of their own stable environments. Though she also acknowledges that we are moved by the stories and situations and respond with ‘tears’, ultimately the effect of the poem is to leave us both saddened and frustrated but ultimately powerless as we realize that very few of us are in a position to directly help those involved in the conflict. However, the poem may have additional positive effects such as encouraging readers who engage with global conflicts to think more about donating their time or money to charitable causes that can alleviate suffering in the wars.

The reality of war is almost too large and complex to fully understand —  a further sense of powerlessness is created through the use of general terms — we do not even know the names of any individuals in the poems, and therefore cannot help them, those who suffer are caught in a political and/ or religious conflict that is much larger than themselves, and so even they cannot fully understand why the war is occurring or how to change it. There are ‘hundreds’ of photographs from a range of locations, which creates an almost dizzying effect when the reader tries to think about it. The use of multiple locations that the photographer visits suggest that the poem is less about one specific war, and more about human nature, questioning why these atrocities occur and recur throughout history, why we are always fighting and destroying one another.

All wars are an expression of the potential humans to do evil —  Following on from the previous idea, there is a sense that the poem explores humans and their capacity for evil as much as it comments on war specifically — the references to a church in the first stanza suggest that the poem intends to open up more spiritual and philosophical questions about our species, rather than directly speaking about one specific war or incident (as most newspaper articles on war will do).

Wars —  There is a non-specific context for the wars being described, although we know that the photographer is working in the pre-digital age as he has to develop the photographs by hand. Duffy references several wars together, even though these were in separate locations, different time periods, and created by different causes (religious, cultural, and political). The photographer has visited all these places and become numb to the suffering and the reasons behind it. Here are the contexts for the separate wars:

Belfast —  the city which formed the center of the Northern Ireland Conflict (1968–98), a complex political and religious conflict that lasted for 30 years, with many underlying causes — such as the tension between Catholics and Protestants, the wish to remain part of the UK or to separate Ireland and become independent, fights between the British government and Irish nationalists, and more.

Beirut —  the capital city of Lebanon, where the Lebanese Civil War took place between 1975–1990. A Civil War is a conflict that happens within a country, so people within Lebanon were fighting amongst each other because of their religious, political, and cultural beliefs — in this case, there was tension between Christians, Sunni Muslims, and Shia Muslims.

Pnom Penh —  the capital city of Cambodia, where the Cambodian Civil War took place between 1967–75. Though the war took place between Cambodian citizens — the Khmer Rouge, a political Communist Party and the government of Cambodia — many other countries also became involved in the conflict — the US on the government’s side, and Vietnam on the Khmer Rouge’s side, so this escalated the scale of the war. The US at the time was fighting in Asia to prevent the spread of communism, as it is a strong capitalist country. Therefore, we can see how political beliefs and strong ideologies cause further war, violence, and suffering and escalate the number of people involved in any conflict — in most wars, the people on each side fully believe that they are right and fighting honorably for a better future.

The poem was published in 1985,  so the Lebanese Civil War and the Northern Ireland Conflict were still ongoing at this time.

Carol Ann Duffy was friends with a war photographer, so her poem is inspired by directly speaking with him about his experiences.

Bear in mind that for both AQA and Edexcel, you have to write a comparative essay, so always make sure to learn your themes/ideas and attitudes in detail and think about which poems connect well or strongly conflict with each other.

• Numbness / Apathy
• News and Media
• Spirituality in the modern world

AQA Power and Conflict:   the full course is coming soon, but in the meantime take a look at our other English and Literature courses here .

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War Photographer | Summary and Analysis

Critical appreciation of war photographer by carol ann duffy.

War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy is a brief-yet-insightful  poem that provides a touching perspective into the agonies of war, internal struggle, ethics, trauma and ignorance.  Published by Carol Ann Duffy in 1985, War Photographer is a poem written in third-person. It depicts a photographer who has returned to his hometown to develop his photographs, all of which were taken at a warzone. Duffy captures it beautifully through the process of developing photos, rather than that of taking them. This adds to the emotion of the piece -in the dark room, the photographer is not required to remain as rational as he was on the battlefield. He lets his feelings sink in, even if it is just for a moment, and we are hence able to witness his internal struggle between professionalism and empathy. It also allows a calmer, less adrenaline-filled view on the topic of ethics in war photography, as compared to if the narrative had been during the war. The poem flows effortlessly, from the setting of context to the pain of war, to the traumatic memories and finally to the unfortunate ignorance of the public, encompassing a broad range of themes within four simple stanzas. Duffy’s distinct writing style aids this- she uses similes, metaphors, and imagery. She also inserts anticipation-inducing phrases at the start of her stanzas, which induce a sense of tense curiosity in her readers.

War Photographer | Summary

The poem starts with the photographer – referred to as ‘he’ throughout the text- alone in a dark room, with his yet-to-be-developed photographs set in front of him in orderly rows. One must keep note of the idea of namelessness and anonymity war had brought to the photographer concerned. There is no other light besides a soft red glow , which makes the photographer feel as though he is attending a Mass at church. The names of warzones cross his mind, making him think that in the end, everyone who dies returns to the same soil.

In the next stanza, we see that the photographer has a task at hand- developing his film. He holds a tray of solution in his hands- oddly enough, his hands, which did not tremble while taking the pictures at the warzone, tremble now . We learn that he is in Rural England, his hometown- a place where his suffering is minimal and his mood can be improved by simply the weather, where there are no bomb blasts and explosions within the sprawling fields, and where no children run in panic in an attempt to flee the scene of war,

A stranger’s features start appearing faintly, still translucent as the film continues to develop. When the photographer sees the man’s face, he remembers the moment he took the photo – the way the man’s wife cried, the way he wordlessly and quickly sought approval before taking the photo, and the way the man bled to death on foreign ground.

As the photos- hundreds of them- continue to develop in black-and-white, the photographer thinks of them as agonies. He knows that the editor of the magazine will pick only a few to publish in the Sunday supplement, and that the readers will s hake their heads with tears in their eyes , momentarily emotional in the late morning. As the photographer sits in the airplane, staring out the window and down at the warzones where he had taken so many photos, he knows that none of them truly care about where the images came from.

War Photographer | Analysis

War photographer | analysis, stanza 1.

In his dark room he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows, as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

In the first stanza, the rows of film are described as “ spools of suffering ” which is the first hint of the nature of the photos. The photographer is left anonymous , which may hint at the distance between him and the true cruelties of war. After all, he is able to leave when he wants to, not having to endure the same pain as those within the war. He is, at the same time, not completely ignorant to its horrors as the rest of the public, who have never witnessed it first-hand. He lies midway, an outsider in both worlds – this element is emphasized by his namelessness in the poem. When he likens the soft red glow of light to the Mass at church, he imagines the words, “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. ”, all of which are badly hit warzones. The line “All flesh is grass. ” refers to the way war often ends with death. The body decays and joins the soil, e veryone enters the earth once more.

War Photographer | Analysis, Stanza 2

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now. Rural England. Home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat.

The suddenness of the line “He has a job to do .” is an example of Duffy’s anticipation-inducing inserts . It jolts the readers from hazy imagination to reality , and this abrupt transition is symbolic of the emotional switch the photographer must exhibit during his job- between sadness and empathy for those wounded in war, and responsibility and focus on his task. However, the fact that “ his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now ” shows that he is n ot quite able to shake off the intensity of his thoughts and memories. While he remained calm on the scene of the war, the recollection of the moments causes him to shake. This also hints at him being nervous to see the fully-developed photos, possibly afraid of reliving those moments . Duffy also employs the juxtaposition of the bomb-blasted warzones versus the serenity of Rural England . This provides an illustrious imagery of just how different life on the warfield is, and ties into the previous point of the photographer being able to escape the reality of war , unlike those who die there. The “ ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel ” describes just how normal life in Rural England is, where one’s suffering halts just because of pleasant weather. The “nightmare heat .” in the last line is the heat from the fire caused by the explosions.

War Photographer | Analysis, Stanza 3

Something is happening. A stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

“Something is happening ” is another phrase employed to stir anxiousness and tenseness in the readers, leaving them in suspense . The photographer calls the stranger’s appearing features a “ half-formed ghost” which implies that the photo is still translucent and developing- the word “ ghost” also emphasises the eerie nature of the photographs. It is important to note that the man in the image is simply called “ stranger ”, for the photographer d oes not know his name – he is just one of the many who died on that foreign ground. This is an almost sad realisation, as life is a precious thing. Yet while documenting it’s cruel end, there was not even enough time or means in the terrible situation for the photographer to learn the name of the dying man in his own photograph. It represents the fleeting nature of life , especially in war. Lives slip away in the blink of an eye, too many people to name.

The photographer remembers three things most clearly from that moment: “ remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust .” The cries of the man’s wife portray the agony of the ones being left behind – the families who lost loved ones and watch them pass right before them, while the photographer’s seeking of approval before taking the photo portrays the i nternal conflict of war photography ethics . The ethical side will ask, is it morally right to take pictures of someone’s gruesome last moments, and of their family’s grief? Is it right to use the images to earn money and print in magazines for the country to see? While the professional side may argue that it is simply part of the job, that permission has been received. And the final part about the man’s blood staining foreign ground highlights the way he was not even able to die in the warmth and comfort of his own country – he will become one with the soil of a foreign country, instead.

War Photographer | Analysis, Stanza 4

A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.

“A hundred agonies in black and white ” represents the various traumatic photos that the photographer has captured. The use of the word ‘agonies’ suggests that despite maintaining his professionalism , that tinge of sadness will always remain – the pain of seeing such ruthlessness may be ignored while working, but cannot be forgotten . It is then mentioned that the editor will “ pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement.” After all, these photos are for publishing . But after reading the previous three stanzas, it creates a disturbing feeling, realising that out of hundreds of heartbreaking, cruel tragedies, the editor will simply pick a few and discard the rest as though they do not matter. He will likely choose the most ‘aesthetic’ ones which fit the magazine, or the most horrifying ones which are certain to draw attention . There is a sense of discomfort at how people’s suffering and torture is used for commercialism.

When the magazine is published, “ The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.” The important point here is the specified timestamp . “Between the bath and the pre-lunch beers ” suggests that it is around late morning that they will see the photos. They will feel emotional for a brief moment while reading , and will move on as soon as they put the magazine down. This is a privilege that does not exist for those trapped in war- similar to the comparison between Rural England and warzones. The readers have the luxury of seeing and forgetting, feeling momentary sympathy and nothing more.

The  last line of the poem shows the photographer: “f rom the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.” He is flying somewhere, likely the next location for his jo b, another warzone to take pictures at. As he looks down at the warzones, the use of the word “impassive” represents the necessary switch between emotional and professional. While he spent quite a lot of time feeling upset, he realises as he sees the warzones again that he will soon need to return to his goal-oriented self.   His lack of emotion portrays the way he steels himself for what is to come . The ending of the poem- “they do not care” – refers to both his editors and the public who read the magazines and see the photos. Their consumption is merely entertainment for them. They are ignorant to the brutality of the warzones, the internal struggle of the job. They do not think about the families of the people they see in the pictures, or wonder what is going on now in the warzones. It does not matter to them, because they are removed from the situation. They view the photos and shake their heads in sympathy, and calmly move on with their own lives.

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• October 11, 2022
• All Poems / GCSE AQA

War Photographer, Carol Ann Duffy

FULL POEM - SCROLL DOWN FOR LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS​

In his dark room he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows, as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now. Rural England. Home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.

LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS

In his dark room he is finally alone

Duffy immediately creates a dark, somber tone by immediately setting the scene in the photographer’s ‘dark room’. A darkroom is used to process light-sensitive photographic film to develop photographs, hence would be how a photographer would publish their photos prior to the digital age. So here in a literal sense, the poem’s subject, the war photographer, is back home developing the photos he’s amassed from war. Figuratively, this tranquil setting juxtaposes the violence of the battlefields where he would have taken his photos, enabling a time for reflection – inevitably traumatic and depressing in nature for which the darkness is a metaphor.

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The photographer winds his photographic film into ‘speels of suffering’ – a metaphor that portrays the sheer brutality of war captured in his photos. The sibilance in this line further emphasises this, resulting in a sinister hissing sound when spoken which is onomatopoeic for the hissing of shells and bullets on a battlefield. 

The only light is red and softly glows as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass.

Duffy compares the dark room to a church through the simile ‘as though this were a church’ and the photographer to a priest through the metaphor ‘and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass’. The imagery of the red light that ‘softly glows’ supports this comparison. Red light is the only light source present in dark rooms to prevent damage to the photographic film and the overexposure of photographs. Meanwhile, in a church, it is also normally the colour of a sanctuary or altar lamp in the Christian tradition.  The way in which the photographer prepares the photos of the victims is ritualistic, akin to a priest conducting a funeral. However, unlike how a priest is preparing to lay the dead to rest, the photographer is preparing for them to be published in newspapers – a contrast that makes the reader question the humanity of his profession.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

The list of places of conflict, ‘Belfast.Beirut.Penh’ that he has photographed is an example of asyndeton – a list without conjunctions that here is instead punctuated with full stops. Such caesura reflects the photographer’s troubled pause for reflection as he prepares photos from each setting and allows the reader to do the same. ‘All flesh is grass’ is a biblical reference, here signifying how fragile and temporary life is especially in times of conflict, perishing and replenishing just like grass with the seasons. 

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

The abruptness of the opening to this stanza mirrors the photographer snapping back to reality and the job at hand, having become distracted pondering the trauma he has witnessed. Duffy also explores the irony between the photographer’s conduct when on the battlefield and when at home in ‘Rural England’. To work professionally at war, he must remain emotionally detached from his subjects, hence there’s a callous efficiency that the job entails. When at home though, a pause in the chaos of war results in the opportunity for its traumas to catch up with and consume him, leading to his hands trembling as he prepares the photographs even though they didn’t when he captured them.

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,

‘Ordinary pain’ is an oxymoron, emphasising the insignificance of the so-called ‘first-world problems’  experienced by those living in ‘Rural England’ compared to the problems of those living in ‘Belfast, Beirut, Phnom Penh’ and other war torn countries the photographer has worked in.

to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat.

This rhyming couplet that concludes this stanza captures the brutality of the conflicts that he is reflecting upon by referencing the heartbreaking ‘Napalm Girl’  photograph depicting nine-year old Phan Thi Kim Phúc fleeing from a South Vietnamese air strike in 1972.

Something is happening. A stranger’s features

Duffy opens this third stanza abruptly with a short sentence, like the last. Here the effect is to create suspense as the caesura results in a pause in the narrative that leaves the reader hanging on what the ‘something’ that is happening actually is.

faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

The imagery used to describe the development of this particular photograph is animalistic – the use of the word ‘twist’ evokes the image of a wounded animal writhing in pain, used to capture the agony of the ‘half-formed ghost’ (a metaphor for the dying man that describes he’s closer to dying than living) in the photograph.  

  of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

These lines explore the morality of the photographer’s profession. A dying man lies on the ‘blood stained’ ground beneath him, whilst the man’s wife cries in desperation as she loses him. Meanwhile, the photographer is a passive spectator, unable to offer help to the man or his wife, instead, he’s more of an intruder in their last moments together. His motive isn’t to cure the suffering but photograph and document it and in the moment that seems selfish, as though he is using it for his own gain. This, in part, is true – the more vivid and poignant the suffering that he captures is, the more successful he and his work become. But on the flip side, these are stories that need to be told, people at home, politicians, need to be made aware of these devastating conflicts if they’re ever going to end and the photographer is putting himself in the firing line to document these stories and one could argue that you don’t get less selfish than that. 

A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick

The final stanza describes the destination and purpose of the photographs that depict ‘a hundred agonies in black and white’. The term ‘a hundred agonies’ emphasises the scale of suffering that the photographer has captured and accumulated from country to country. ‘Five or six’ of the most shocking are then selected and published ‘for Sunday’s supplement’, designed to make as profound an impression on the reader as possible. As touched on previously, herein lies the debate on the morality of such publications.  

with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.

Having considered those who were the subject of his photographs, the photographer shifts his attention to those consuming them, the people back home in England who enjoy a much safer and easier life in comparison.  How their ‘eyeballs prick with tears’ connotes how they are moved briefly but not sincerely by the photographs, akin to the momentary feeling of pain of pricking one’s finger, which subsides quickly at the thought of ‘pre-lunch beers’. The internal rhyme between ‘tears’ and ‘beers’ lightens the tone – further emphasising the shallow, temporary impact the photographs have on the readers. The poem concludes with the photographer coming to this realisation about his audience as he travels by plane most likely to his next place of work and no doubt this leaves him questioning the purpose and morality of his profession as he prepares to do it all over again. 

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War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy – Analysis of Poem

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War Photographer / Remains Essay

(grade 5-6).

Both ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Remains’ explore memories. In the second stanza of ‘War Photographer’, Duffy creates a vivid image of one of the photographer’s memories by writing ‘running children in a nightmare heat’. Duffy’s words create graphic, powerful imagery of innocent children caught up in the middle of a warzone, running in agony and terror away from a chemical weapon. Duffy suggests through these words that the photographer's mind is always filled with powerful and upsetting memories of the terrible things he witnessed while taking photos in warzones. Armitage makes clear the soldier cannot forget the memory of shooting the looter by writing ‘probably armed, possibly not’. Armitage’s repetition of these words in the poem emphasise that this particular memory, of whether or not the looter is armed, is very important. It is important because the soldier is wondering whether or not he needed to kill the looter. If the looter was not armed, the soldier killed an innocent person, who posed no threat to him. Armitage’s use of the word ‘possibly’ indicates that the soldier cannot be sure that the looter was armed, and runs this memory over and over in his mind. Armitage’s repetition of these words also emphasise the power of this memory, as it keeps flooding back into the soldier’s mind, even when he is home on leave. It is clear from both poems that being in or near war can deeply affect people, leaving them with lasting trauma.

Both ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Remains’ explore guilt. In the third stanza of War Photographer, Duffy makes the photographer’s guilt clear by writing that he sees a ‘half-formed ghost’ when he develops one of the photographs. Duffy’s imagery in the words ‘half-formed’ helps the reader to imagine the photograph slowly developing in front of his eyes. Her use of the word ‘ghost’ implies that the photographer is being haunted by the memory of this man and the cries of the man’s wife when she realised her husband was dead. Duffy suggests he feels guilty because he was not able to do more to help this man or his wife; all he could do was stand by and take a photograph. Similarly, in the closing lines of ‘Remains’, Armitage makes the soldier’s guilt clear by writing ‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’. Armitage uses the blood as a symbol of the guilt that the soldier feels; the soldier feels he has blood on his hands because he killed a person who could have been innocent. Armitage could have chosen to end the poem with this line because he wanted to demonstrate that the soldier cannot remove the image of the looter’s blood from his mind, and that the guilt he feels for killing the looter will stay with him forever.

Both poems explore struggle . In the final stanza of ‘War Photographer’, Duffy conveys the struggle of the photographer, who feels angry that his readers are not more moved by his pictures by writing ‘reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre lunch beers’. Duffy’s use of the word ‘prick’ to describe the readers’ emotions indicates that they barely cry when they see the photographs. Duffy’s suggestion is that, when we are so far removed from war, we cannot fully understand the pain that people go through. Duffy’s use of the words ‘bath’ and ‘beers’ remind the reader that in England we have many luxuries that people in warzones don’t have. This makes it very easy for us to forget the terrible lives that other people have, because we can go back to enjoying our own luxurious lifestyles. The struggle in Remains is different. In Remains, Armitage presents the soldier as deeply traumatised by what he experienced at war. Remains makes clear the soldier struggles to forget what he saw and did by writing ‘the drink and drugs won’t flush him out’.Armitage’s use of the word ‘flush’ implies that the emotions the soldier feels are like toxins within his body that he wants to get rid of. It is clear that the soldier has become reliant on addictive substances as a way of coping. Armitage conveys to his readers the terrible trauma that many soldiers experienced and tells the reader how difficult it was for them to return to normal life when they returned.

(Grade 8-9)

Both ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Remains’ explore the haunting power of memories. In the second stanza of ‘War Photographer’, Duffy creates a vivid image of one of the photographer’s memories by writing ‘running children in a nightmare heat’. Here, Duffy’s words create graphic, powerful imagery of innocent children caught up in the middle of a warzone, running in agony and terror away from a chemical weapon. This poetic image was inspired by a real-life photograph captured by a war photographer in Vietnam. Through this evocative imagery, Duffy suggests that the photographer's mind cannot shake the distressing memories of the terrible pain he witnessed while taking photos in warzones. Similarly, Armitage makes clear the soldier cannot forget the memory of shooting the looter through his use of the poem’s refrain: ‘probably armed, possibly not’. Armitage’s repetition of these words emphasise that this particular ambiguous memory, of whether or not the looter is armed, is haunting him. If the looter was not armed, the soldier would not have needed to kill him. Therefore, he is plagued by a feeling of potential guilt; ihe could have killed an innocent person, who posed no threat to him. Armitage’s repetition of these words throughout the poem also emphasise the power of this memory, as it keeps flooding back into the soldier’s mind, even when he is home on leave. It is an unwelcome and persistent reminder that is contributing to his post-traumatic symptoms. It is clear from both poems that being involved in or an observer of war can deeply affect people, leaving them with a lasting mental struggle.

Both ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Remains’ explore the intensity of guilt. In the third stanza of War Photographer, Duffy makes the photographer’s guilt evident by writing that he sees a ‘half-formed ghost’ when he develops one of the photographs. Duffy’s powerful metaphor helps the reader to vividly imagine the photograph slowly developing in a chemical solution in front of his eyes, while the word ‘ghost’ implies that the photographer is being psychologically haunted by the memory of this man and the terrible cries of the man’s wife. Perhaps Duffy suggests that the photographer feels guilty because he was not able to do more to help this man or his wife; all he could do was carry out his role by capturing the moment with a photograph for the media. TSimilarly, in the closing lines of ‘Remains’, Armitage makes the soldier’s guilt clear by writing ‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’. Armitage uses the blood as a symbol of the guilt that the soldier feels; the soldier feels he has blood on his hands because he killed a person who could have been innocent. Armitage could have chosen to end the poem with this line because he wanted to demonstrate that the soldier cannot remove the image of the looter’s blood from his mind, and that the guilt he feels for killing the looter will stay with him, or metaphorically stain him, forever.

Both poems explore an inner conflict or struggle . In the final stanza of ‘War Photographer’, Duffy conveys the struggle of the photographer, who feels infuriated that his readers are not more emotionally moved by his pictures by writing ‘reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre lunch beers’. Duffy’s use of the word ‘prick’ to describe the readers’ emotions indicates that they barely cry when they see the photographs, or that their emotion is transient because they cannot empathise with the people in the photographs as they are so far removed from conflict zones. Duffy’s use of the words ‘bath’ and ‘beers’ remind the reader that in England we have many everyday luxuries that people in warzones don’t have. This makes it easy and almost inevitable for us to forget the terrible lives that other people have, because we are so engrossed in our own luxurious lifestyles. While there is an emotional struggle for the soldier in Remains, the nature of the strife is different. In Remains, Armitage presents the soldier as deeply traumatised by what he experienced at war. Remains makes clear the soldier struggles to forget what he saw and how he behaved by writing ‘the drink and drugs won’t flush him out’.Here, Armitage’s use of the word ‘flush’ implies that the emotions the soldier feels are like toxins within his body that he wants to eject. It is clear that the soldier has become reliant on addictive substances as a way of coping with the devastating effects of war and its violent agony. Armitage conveys to his readers the terrible trauma that many soldiers experience, and exposes to the reader how difficult it is for soldiers to adapt to normal life when they return from war.

Both Duffy and Armitage use structure to reflect an attempt to control difficult emotions . In ‘War Photographer,’ Duffy deliberately uses a tight stanza structure with a clear rhyme scheme to mirror the order the photographer is trying to restore in his own mind. He is described as putting his photographs into “ordered rows,” just as Duffy carefully brings order to the poem. Perhaps she is suggesting that this sort of organisation is the only way he can eliminate the chaos and distress he struggles with. In Armitage’s poem, the soldier is less successful in containing his emotional outpourings. While the poem begins in an ordered way with regular stanza structures, it descends into irregular and erratic stanzas to perhaps symbolise his inability to control the traumatic memories which continue to flood his mind.

War Photographer

By carol ann duffy, war photographer quotes and analysis.

In his dark room he is finally alone / with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. Speaker

Duffy sets the scene by describing the setting of the poem. "War Photographer" takes place in a darkroom, where a man is developing his photographs from his experiences on the battlefield. Although he is "finally alone," in a calm environment away from the constant action of the battlefield, he is "with" the photographs—they are developing in front of him and constantly present in his mind, haunting him. The photographs are described as "spools of suffering," which gives us some indication of what they might contain. They are arranged in "ordered rows," invoking a graveyard and also foreshadowing their gruesome content. The word "suffering" is the key word in this quote: it is more abstract than the concrete description of the photographer, and it introduces a key theme throughout the poem, which is the suffering caused by war.

Rural England. Home again / to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, / to fields which don't explode beneath the feet Speaker

In this stanza, Duffy emphasizes the difference between the photographer's current location and his previous position on the battlefield. Here, the photographer is only concerned with everyday worries, rather than the extreme worries of the ground potentially exploding beneath his feet. The speaker describes this pain as "ordinary," suggesting that while the photographer has accepted some level of difficulties and suffering in everyday life, this contrasts with the deeper horrors of war which cannot be "dispel[led]," or banished, by inevitable changes such as changes in the weather. By referencing "weather," Duffy also contrasts natural features of life with the artificial, man-made horrors of war. This builds on the religious theme throughout the poem, suggesting a question of whether God or man is responsible for the centuries of warfare that have periodically plagued the world throughout human existence. She also suggests there is some adjustment when returning home after warfare. While the photographer reflects on being at home, he is quickly reminded by contrast of the dangers that he has faced in his work.

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where / he earns his living and they do not care. Speaker

The final two lines in the poem, which stand together as a rhyming couplet, reflect the poem's dual themes of the photographer's trauma and his audience's ambivalence. The photographer imagines himself in an "aeroplane" (a British and archaic term for airplane), symbolizing his distance from his audience. The photographer's travels in an airplane also reflect the constant movement and trauma associated with his work: as he lists the multiple war zones he has witnessed in Line 6 ("Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh"), it is implied that these places begin to blur together in his memory of the traumas he has witnessed, as represented by the blurriness of the images he produces. In addition to imagining himself in this symbolic aeroplane, the photographer "stares impassively" out of the plane, symbolizing his role in war as an objective observer who simply documents the atrocities that play out in front of him—a photographer who "earns his living" from making art and news out of suffering. This description has a component of irony, as the poem explores the photographer's emotional experience of his work, belying his supposedly objective role. In a final twist, Duffy notes that the photographer is staring impassively at his own home country, where people "do not care" about the wars occurring abroad. This final line implicates the audience in the photographer's impassivity and contains an implicit call to action to speak or act out against war, rather than passively accepting it.

War Photographer Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for War Photographer is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

what does the religious imagery in stanza 1 suggest about the photographer and his work

The priest imagery is a means of the photographer himself making sense of his work and using metaphor to shield himself from reality, which adds a further layer of meaning. Characteristic of those grappling with trauma, the photographer is unable...

why is the phrase "running children in a nightmare heat" effective

This seems like a powerful metaphor for the effect of war on children.

Study Guide for War Photographer

War Photographer study guide contains a biography of Carol Ann Duffy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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"War Photographer" Essay

                        "War Photographer" Essay                        

Choose a poem which explores the theme of loneliness or isolation. Show how the poet explores the theme and discuss, to what extent, your appreciation of the theme was deepened by the poet's treatment.

In your answer you may refer closely to the text and to at least two of the following; theme, imagery, contrast, mood or any other appropriate feature.

"War Photographer", a moving poem by Carol Ann Duffy, explores the theme of isloation. The poem, based on an interview the poet had with "War Photographer", Don McCullin, reveals the dilemma within his work and how this work results in his isolation. Through the use of theme and imagery, Duffy successfully deepens the reader's appreciation of the theme of isolation.

The opening line of the poem is ambiguous. Duffy, choosing not to expose the true and horrific nature to war, instead introduces the Photographer's "darkroom" where he will develop the photographs he has taken:

"In his darkroom he is finally alone"

This could suggests that the photographer uses his "darkroom" to reflect on the darkness of the events that he has winessed. The words "finally alone" imply that this place is a sanctuary for him, a haven to escape the brutality of warfare which he, himself has seen and captured.  Metaphorically, this "darkroom" could signify a confessional box in a church in which he feels he can face up to his sins and seek forgiveness for his work which he considers expoitative. In this first line, the reader is instantly given a real insight into this photographer's isolation, he chooses to isolate himself as he cannot face the public who don't understand the moral dilemma within his work.

        The theme of religion is predominent throughout the poem. The Photographer is repeatedly compared to a priest as they share many similarities both in their work and their isolation. Duffy suggests that the developing of these photographs is closely linked to the work of a priest:

        " The only light is red and softly glows/ as though this were a church and he/ a priest preparing to intone a mass."

This is a preview of the whole essay

The red light mentioned here, literally meaning the infra-red light in the darkroom, interestingly is often refered to as a "safe-light" which could further suggest the photographer's need to isolate himself away from the world. The word "softly" reveals the comfort and security the man feels when he "finally" gets to the developing stage of his work in a safe and secluded room. This "light" also has religious connotations as it could be interpreted as the small red candles in a chapel to represent the holy spirit. The reader is given the impression that the photographer, much like a priest, is a man on a mission – preparing to spread the words of truth. While revealing this, the two such different occupations become linked through the photographer and the preist's self inflicted isolation. They have both in a way, sacraficed themselves for the greater cause of informing the nation.

As the developing process progresses, so do the photographer's thoughts and memories of the horrors he has witnessed. The imagery used to represent this gives the audience a real insight into his line of thought and reveals the extent of which his work affects him psychologically:

"A stranger's features/ faintly start to twist before his eyes

a half-formed ghost"

The impersonality of "a stranger's features" reveals the widespread perception of these people as meerly another victim of a war-stricken country rather than a fellow human being. The fact that the victim appears to him "faintly" suggests that this is how the memory is coming back to him while the almost onomatopoeic use of "twist" implies real and immense suffering. This is all materializing "before his eyes" which reinforces that it was he, himself that took the photograph and therfore stood by and witnessed this tradgedy. An almost haunting atmosphere is given by the use of "ghost" while it could be a subtle reference to the spirit of Christ (often refered to as the "Holy Ghost") and its presence during Mass, it also suggests that the photographer will forever be reminded of these images – the price he must pay for doing his job. This gives the reader a deeper understanding of the photographer's moral dilemma in his work which inevitably keeps him secluded. It suggests that it's his knowledge of the world's problems and the public's ignorance of such problems that isolate him.

The Second stanza winesses the photographer faltering to develop the photograph. His emotions reveal to the audience that there's a reluctance within his work, that he forces himself to develop them just as he forces himself to do the job because he knows he must. The dilemma he faces everytime he takes a photograph is introduced in this stanza:

"He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath the hands which did not tremble then"

The abruptness of the ceasura in this first line reveals that the photographer, when he goes through the developing process, must keep his wits about him and remind himself of why he must get on with it while the use of "tremble" further reinforces his reluctance to do the job. The audience is given the impression that the photographer gets little job-satisfaction from taking these photographs. It's this job which cuts him off from the rest of the world as virtually him alone knows these horrors and is willing to damage himself psychologically for the chance to see others taking an interest in, not his work, but what his work represents – the effects of war on the human race on a personal and up-close level. He is willing to isolate himself for this cause.

Carol Ann Duffy's "War Photographer", an account of a photographer isolated by his moral dilemma, succesfully deepens the audience's appreciation of the theme of isolation itself. Through the effective employment of theme and imagery, Duffy explores his dilemma and how it isolates him from the rest of the world. Yet, he continues with his work to try and change the public's perception of these victims as meer foreigners. The photographer, with the hope that his work will one day make a difference, continues to take photographs in the face of evil and soul destroying suffering.

Word count – 984 words

Document Details

• Word Count 1074
• Page Count 3
• Subject English

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"Poppies" and "War Photographer": a Comparison of War Poems

• Categories: Carol Ann Duffy Poetry

About this sample

Words: 514 |

Published: May 19, 2020

Words: 514 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

• Dowson, J., & Dowson, J. (2016). Voices from the 1980s and After. Carol Ann Duffy: Poet for Our Times, 87-121. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-41563-9_3)
• Hughes-Edwards, M. (2006). ‘The House […] has Cancer’: Representations of Domestic Space in the Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy. In Our House (pp. 121-139). Brill. ( https://brill.com/display/book/9789401202817/B9789401202817_s010.xml)
• Dimarco, D. (1998). Exposing Nude Art: Carol Ann Duffy's Response to Robert Browning. Mosaic: A journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature, 25-39. ( https://www.jstor.org/stable/44029809)
• Schweik, S. (1987). Writing war poetry like a woman. Critical Inquiry, 13(3), 532-556 . ( https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/448407?journalCode=ci)

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