Carol Ann Duffy- War Photographer

Question 1

What is the significance of the word “darkroom”?

Answer 1

Suggests isolation, depression but also death, pain and misery.

Question 2

What is the effect of the metaphor “spools of suffering”?

Answer 2

Personification, suggests that the photos hold painful memories to him.

Question 3

What could the “ordered rows” be referring to? (Think about images of war – what else is laid out in ordered rows?) What is this order a contrast to?

Answer 3

Suggests that not only are the photographs organised but so too are the people fighting ordered into rank. This contrasts the unordered chaos of the war.

Question 4

What connotations does the red light have?

Answer 4

Has connotations of warning and harm, This contrasts the phrase “softly glows” which suggests that the light is comforting and calming.

Question 5

Pick out two similes in lines 4 and 5. What does this suggest about his attitude to the death shown in the photos?

Answer 5

“As though this was a church” The writer uses a simile to compare the safety of his room at home to the confort people find in a church.
“And he a priest” The writer uses a metaphor to emphasise how he has to deal with a lot of pain and suffering such as a priest would in his role.

Question 6

What does the list of the war zones emphasise?

Answer 6

The list emphasises the seriousness of the war zones and how they are everywhere, some even close to home such as Belfast.

Question 7

“All flesh is grass”. This is a quote from the Old Testament in Isaiah 40:6. What do you interpret it to mean?

Answer 7

Emphasises the circle of life, as the dead go into the ground and people move on just as the grass will grow over the grave. It emphasises how fragile life just as grass will get damaged and bend under foot.

Question 8

“He has a job to do.” How do you think the poet feels about his job? Think about the length of the sentence and tone – what does it emphasise?

Answer 8

Suggests that his job is like a chore which he has to do and has no choice. The sentence suggests how little of a choice he has and that his job should be taken really seriously like it’s life or death.

Question 9

“Solutions slop in trays” What technique is being used? What does it emphasise?

Answer 9

Alliteration is used to suggest the ‘slop’ is just like people walking through thick mud in the trenches, and mirrors the sound of the solution in the tray as he moves.

Question 10

Why do his hands tremble now? How is he feeling about having taken the photos?

Answer 10

He is feeling uneasy as he looks over the photos he has taken and he is almost reliving each and every photo.

Question 11

What image does “Rural England” create? What is this in contrast to?

Answer 11

Contrasts the lush grass and peaceful meadows to the loud, destroyed land in the wars.

Question 12

What does “ordinary pain” contrast with?

Answer 12

Suggests that it is normal and he deals with it every day, this contrasts to the horrific pain and suffering of the wars.

Question 13

“Simple weather can dispel” What is he implying about the people’s “ordinary pain” in England?

Answer 13

He is implying that when England gets good weather people forget the grief of what is going on on their doorstep.

Question 14

What is the contrast in the last three lines?

Answer 14

“Running children in a nightmare heat”
Running children suggests innocence and joy however this contrasts the fact that they are running away from bombs and are scared in a warzone.

Question 15

“Something is happening” What?

Answer 15

The photographer is starting to remember all the people he has photographed and every painful situation they were in.

Question 16

What does the word “stranger” tell us?

Answer 16

It suggests that they were stripped of their identity through the war and they just became targets, also suggests through the severity of the situation they never got a chance to speak to each other.

Question 17

What does the word “twist” imply?

Answer 17

Suggests that his memories are coming back and he is imagining that he is there taking the photo as people are moving. “Twist” also suggests that the people are moving in an unnatural way such as to avoid something that they weren’t expecting.

Question 18

“a half-formed ghost” What is literally happening? What does the word “ghost” tell us about the fate of the person in the photograph? What does this tell us about the photographer’s attitude to this person?

Answer 18

This suggests that he is feeling uneasy because he is seeing the people in his photos as deformed and ghostly. The people in the photos might be dead or could possibly be now. This also suggests that he is haunted by the memories of the warzones (just as people get haunted by ghosts in old houses)

Question 19

What has the photo captured?

Answer 19

The photo captured people in a warzone scared and frightened for their safety however the photo has also held all of these memories to the photographer that other people won’t see.

Question 20

“sought approval” How did he feel while he was taking it?

Answer 20

It felt wrong for him to take the photo without permission as the person was in a bad way, possibly injured or dying.

Question 21

Why did he take the photo?

Answer 21

To show how painful war is to those not fighting but trying to survive the constant bombing and bullets.

Question 22

How many photos has he taken?

Answer 22

“A hundred”

Question 23

“pick out five or six” What does this highlight about the newspaper editor’s attitude?

Answer 23

Suggests they aren’t taking it seriously and are looking for aesthetics in photos instead of showing the public the horrendous conditions people are living in. This means then that the public are not seeing the full extent of the damage caused in these places.

Question 24

What is a “Sunday supplement”? What does this tell you about the significance of the photograph?

Answer 24

It suggests that the newspaper isn’t of the highest quality and very few people might actually look at his photos in it.

Question 25

Why do the reader’s eyeballs only “prick” with tears?

Answer 25

Suggests that the tears are painful to allow but that he is also holding back from showing his emotions around others who do not care. The word ‘prick’ has connotations of minimal as if they are hardly crying at all.

Question 26

“between the bath and pre-lunch beers” What does this tell you about how the photographs will affect them?

Answer 26

It suggests that the photos be looked at deeply and emphasises how little people care about the wars when its not on their doorstep.

Question 27

What does the word “impassively” mean?

Answer 27

Suggests that he is too sad and upset to show any emotion towards the warzone’s he sees.

Question 28

Who does not care? (Hint: this could be referring to more than one group of people)

Answer 28

Suggests how little others on the plane care about what is going on below them but also how people back at home don’t care about his job and how hard it can be.