War Photographer Flashcards
In his darkroom he is finally alone
Connotes serious, brooding, bleak and grim place
Suggests job takers photographer to dark place
‘His’ suggests he is comfortable
‘Finally’ he has been waiting for solitude, to reflect? To escape?
With spools of suffering
Metaphor/ transferred epithet
Highlights intensity of pain depicted in images
Alliteration of ‘s’ makes words soft and smooth to contrast the phrase
Set out in ordered rows
Clinical and objective
Reference to graveyard (ordered rows) emphasises the death the picture depict
Contrasts chaos of war and robotic way of work
The only light is red and softly glows
‘Only’ solitude
‘Red’ danger bloodshed highlighted in photos
Soft ambient light. Emphasises idea of church and contrasts with harsh reality
As though this were his church and he/ a priest preparing for mass.
Idea of ceremony
Highlights importance of life changing work
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.
List of war zones
No flow/ short sentence, reader forced to consider conflict
Plosive P and B sounds
Violent, highlights horror
All flesh is grass
Biblical reference
All things die
Monosyllabic sentence
Highlights suffering in photography
He has a job to do.
Change emphasised by short sentence.
Photographer suppresses emotions, highlighting clinical nature
Lack of empathy
‘Has’ connotes no choice
Solutions slop in trays
Harsh s sound
Solution as in ‘to a problem’
Not treating pictures with respect
Solutions are sometimes messy
Beneath his hands which did not tremble then/ thought seem to now
Beneath connotes he is above those in the photos, or society thinks so
Has to stay objective but is now in a place where he doesn’t need to suppress his emotions
Rural England. Home again/ to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel
Short sentence forces reader to consider the contrast
Home- selfish and comfortable
Ordinary pain- the pain experienced here is more inconvenience than real pain
Our concerns are petty and trivial
To fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
‘Field’ links to rural England, emphasises contrast
Images of devistat
Highlights horror which emphasises our selfishness
Of children running in a nightmare heat
Suggests horror so extreme it is unreal
Running children fleeing and desperate. Innocents suffering
Suggests chemical war fair
Something is happening
Picture is starting to develop and the photographer is experiencing feelings
He is being transported back
A strangers features
Stranger suggests detached sense of empathy
Features refers to specific details showing these people are human
Faintly start to twist before his eyes
Picture developer
Twist connotes pain and anguish suggesting the person in the picture is in distress
Perhaps it is reflection of the photographers own anguish
A half formed ghost
Picture is not fully developed but the person it depicts is also dead
He remembers the cries
Distinct memory
Shows it effected him
Of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
Wife dying in extreme pain, this clearly has scarred him
Man seeks approval to put wife of her misery
Approval emphasises central theme of moral judgment and right and wrong
Man seeks approval from photographer as he exploits them for a living
And how the blood stained into foreign dust
Stark image
Connotes texture as it soakes into the earth
Foreign places a distance between the person and the events
The photographer is at odds with his job and his humanity
Dust has religious connotations, allusion that we all die
A hundred agonies in black and white
Metaphor
Photograph is the physical manifestation of pain and suffering, each one tells a story
Shows multitude of agonies and victims in pictures
Pictures are monochrome but also there is no uncertain of the wrongness and agony
From which his editor will pick out five or six
Most will be discarded
Shows how unimportant the plight of the people is to those who created an industry around it
Criticism of editor
For Sundays supplement
‘Supplement’ -an additional magazine
Its not considered real news
Emphasises apathy
The readers eyeballs prick
Shows how unaffected the readers are, no real tears fall
Prick highlights trivial response, emphasises apathy
Their sympathy is fleeting
‘Prick’ - a small discomfort
Suggests desensitisation
With tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers
Stark contrasts between war zone and luxury
Plosive b shows poets disgust at this
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
He surveys rural England from above
Impassively suggests lack of emotion, he is hardened by his job and the uncaring reactions back home
He earns his living and they do not care
Do not care refers to readers and editor and us
Cutting statement about our general apathy
Summarative
Ends on a negative tone to make us think about our selfishness
