War Photographer Flashcards
In his DARK ROOM he is FINALLY ALONE
with SPOOLS OF SUFFERING set out in ORDERED ROWS.
w/c - dark room - has connotations of brooding/serious/bleak place. This suggests that perhaps this job takes the photographer to a dark place mentally. Implies anxiety, stress and horror of the job.
w/c - finally - suggest he has been longing for solitude. The darkroom becomes his ‘safe haven’, the place where he can be alone and reflectprivately on his harrowing experiences.
w/c - alone - the emphasies on ‘alone’ reflects the loneliness of his job - he is separated from his subject, editor and readers. No one can really understand the horrors he has witnessed.
metaphor - spools of suffering - comparing the film spools with suffering. The image highlights the horrors that the images contain - they are so horrific that they become suffering itself. Could also suggest the photographer’s suffering as he knows developing these images will be a painful experience.
alliteration - of the consonant sound ‘s’ and vowel ‘o’ - mirrors the repetition of the spools of film laid out on his table: each sound is clearly and methodically marked out.
w/c - ordered rows - reminiscent of gravestones, creating a link to the horrors of war which are contained on the films themselves. Also, perhaps he feels like he needs to find some order to what has happened. Trying to regain control.
The ONLY light is RED and SOFTLY GLOWS,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a MASS.
w/c - only - builds on the idea of loneliness and solitude
symbolism - red - symbolises danger or blood. It also suggests a sanctuary lamp.
w/c - softly glows - adds to the genteel atmosphere of this safe, quiet, lonely room back home.
extended image - last two lines - this suggests that the work the photographer does in compatable to spreading the word/truth of God. Serious, worthy, life-changing work. He is compared to a priest because the way he prepares the photos is sombre, respectful and almost ritualistic. Shows how seriously he takes his job.
w/c - mass - invokes the idea of mass graves
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.
list - short sentences - the list is blunt and functional (like the photographer’s work). Sounds like a roll call, perhaps suggesting that they are simply examples from a much longer list. These are all places which have suffered from the civil war or genocide.
caesura - creates a slow-paced line which makes us reflect on the sheer amount of wars that have taken place in recent history and reinforces the fact that the war photographer will have seen all of these.
The switching of words usually used in Mass to a list of warzones highlights the guilt and how morally wrong he thinks the images he captures are. Something revered (the church and human life) is destroyed in the pictures he takes.
All flesh is grass.
Juxtaposition - of this phrase and the list is perhaps ironic: yes, all human life ends eventually but in places such as these it is ended much sooner.
metaphor - compares the human body to grass. Suggests fragility of life.
Duffy mentions no higher power and so implies that we all die, and become earth again.
It expands on the idea of the photographer spreading his important message like a priest spreads the word of God. This develops the idea, highlighting how the suffering the photographer shoots is constantly changing and on-going but his photos succeed in capturing it and making it permanent.
He has a job to do.
short, simple, blunt sentences - reflects the blunt, matter-of-fact approach he has to his work. Perhaps this is how he justifies doing this job?
ambiguous - literally refers to his job of developing photos, but also to his job as a war photographer.
Solutions SLOP in trays
beneath his hands, which did not tremble then
though seem to now.
w/c - slop - implies carelessness
alliteration - s - suggest the sloshing of the liquid.
w/c - This emphasises how the ‘solutions’ are messy or difficult to deal with. Contrast between the messiness of war and the orderliness of home.
ambigious - solutions slop in trays - literally liquid to develop pictures, also the ‘solution’ to the problem.
contrast - his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now - his hands are steady when taking the pictures. In contrast to when he gets home and doesn’t need to hide his emotions, his hands tremble with fear/anxiety.
enjambment - then - .emphasises this contrast as attention is drawn to though seem to now
Rural England.
w/c - rural - has connotations of a perfect, countrysside life: leafy, green, peaceful, natural and calm.
contrast - this contrasts with the places names in stanza 1 which were the opposite (dangerous, urban and harsh).
minor sentence - shifts the focus of the poem to the photographer’s home
w/c - suggests idyllic life
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.
oxymoron - ordinary pain - makes the reader consider what this means. The kind of pain experienced in rural England is not really pain at all, but unhappiness which can be solves by a sunny day. This draws our attention to the pain they experience in these war zones; it must be terrible, agonising and serious.
w/c - ordinary - pain is something unexpected - a reaction to something unpleasant, it is never ordinary.
w/c - fields - suggest minefields in a war zone
w/c - - in England, fields are part of comfortable, idyllic rural life. These lines emphasise the contrast between this life and the ‘nightmare’ life in a war zone.
w/c - running children - creates the idea in the reader’s mind of children being the innocent victims of war. Creates sympathy.
contrast - barefoot children running in the grass for fun/those running from the war - end of innocence and, possibly, life.
Something is happening.
short sentence - suggests the photographs are appearing or something is happening to the photographer - or both.
implies a loss of control - photographer can’t control when these memories will surface.
A stranger’s features
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost.
w/c - strangers - he has photographed so many soldiers, he is unable to name everyone he has seen.
w/c - faintly - under the surface/barely there
w/c - twist - connotations of movement and distortion. Reflects the pain and suffering he witnesses, and that he feels himself.
w/c - half-formed - has connotations of being incomplete, unfinished. Reflects the nature of war being ever-present.
w/c - ghost - suggests the photographer is haunted by the people he couldn’t save/inability to escape his trauma.
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.
w/c - cries - has connotations of pain, suffering. This is projected onto the photographer, he is unable to escape what he has seen.
w/c - approval - has conotations of being allowed, being told something is okay. This reflects the moral uncertainty the photographer felt in takng these photograph’s/he wants to know that his work is acceptable and wants the approval from those he is photographing.
w/c (alliteration) - without words (w) - suggests that there was a language barrier or he was too upset to speak. Highlights difficult emotional aspect of his job.
w/c - someone must - has connotations of feeling compelled, having to do something. Reflects what the photographer sees his job as being morally important - someone must show the atrocities happening in war.
w/c - stained - connotations of permanence, unable to erase. Suggests it will always be remembered - due to his images.
w/c - dust - insignificant. Draws attention to how quickly forgotten these atrocities are, how many wars etc.
A hundred agonies in black and white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement.
w/c - hundred - makes clear the scale of the issue, lots of photos taken.
w/c - agonies - reflects the suffering he has witness, he views his as horrifc.
w/c - black and white -
1. photo
2. good and evil
3. truth and lies
w/c - pick out - chooses photos to suit the article; don’t convey the full horror of the war
from which his editor will pick out five or six - careless indifference of editor shows how little we care for the suffering of those far away
contrast - calm selection by editor contrasts with the agonising images captured by the photographer.
w/c - supplement - an extra, additional part. Suggests war is sensationalised, placed in the ‘glossy’ exciting colour part of the newspaper. Seems like an afterthought.
The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
enjambment - prick with tears - emphasises the minimal reaction from the reader.
The short time between ‘bath’ and ‘pre-lunch beers’ reveals brief discomfort before easy existence.
w/c - bath and pre-luch beers - trivialises: we are only moved momentarily
w/c - pre-luch beers - contrasts to war zone
internal rhyme - ‘tears’ and ‘beers’ - adds to cynical view.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns his livings and they do not care.
w/c - he stares impassively - suggests lack of emotion, he is hardened to his job? Strength? Highlights that he doesn’t feel he belongs to either world.
w/c - where he learns his livings - no one place named, suggest cyclical nature of war. Growing acceptance that despite his best efforts his photos will make no difference.
w/c - where - en route to another assignment; poem is cyclical; unceasing wars
assonance - ‘a’ in care - creates a despairing tone - what is the point in his job if people do not care?
w/c - they do not care - suggests that the photos are used entertainment.
