Carol Ann Duffy
'War Photographer'
In his darkroom 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.
You are going to write an answer to the following
question
How does the writer create a realistic picture of the
photographer and his job ?
You are going to write about
* the content and ideas of the poem
* the setting of the poem and how this is important
* some of the techniques the poet uses to make the
reader think of the photographer
* the poet's word choice and what effect this has on the
reader
* how you think about the work of a war photographer
The content and ideas in the poem.
The list below outlines several things that are in the text. But they are not placed in
the order in which they appear in the poem. Put them into the correct order.
The photographer has returned to England from an
assignment abroad.
The subject finds himself alone in his darkroom.
He watches as photographs develop before his eyes.
He thinks of the differences between the places he has
just visited and the place he calls home.
He remembers the people in the photos and what they
were doing as he took the images.
He recalls how he looked to one man's wife for
permission to take the photograph of him suffering.
The photographer realises that people are not influenced
by his work for more than a short time.
He knows that all of his work will be reduced to just a
few pictures in a glossy magazine.
He says to himself that nobody cares about either him or
the people he shows in his photos.
Now write a paragraph in your jotter explaining what the poem is about.
The Setting of the poem.
How would you prove the following points
by referring to the text?
The man has been to all the trouble spots of the world
The man is now working in a familiar part of the world which
is peaceful by comparison to the places mentioned above.
Again, emphasises safety and peaceful life at home, shocking
image, contrast with the violence abroad.
He remembers the death of a man and the picture he had taken
with the unspoken permission of the man’s wife.
Point
The poem begins in a
very private setting
The man has been to
all the trouble spots
of the world
Quote
"In his darkroom.."
"Belfast, Beirut,
Phnom Penh."
Why this is important
Place of peace and
tranquillity
Safe from the
dangers of the other
half of his work
Shows the extent of
unrest in the world –
trouble is everywhere
The man is now
working in a familiar
part of the world
which is peaceful by
comparison to the
places mentioned
above.
Again, emphasises
safety and peaceful
life at home, shocking
image, contrast with
the violence abroad.
"Rural England.
Home again."
He remembers the
death of a man and
the picture he had
taken with the
unspoken permission
of the man’s wife.
Morally
questionable?
"foreign dust"
Gives the impression
of idyllic setting
This is where he
belongs
"fields which don't
explode beneath the
feet."
It mentions
children’s feet not
soldiers feet, more
effective, again
emphasises ther
danger of the places
he has visited, even
the young and
innocent are unsafe.
Emphasises the
troubles are
happening elsewhere.
‘Foreign’ that we will
forget the world’s
troubles because they
are not ours!
Setting in the poem part 2
Look back at part 1 and the quotes you found which describe setting.
Divide these into two sections below
Home
What this make
us think
Abroad
What this make
us think
Now write a paragraph in your jotter explaining how the poet establishes two settings
and why she does this.
The techniques used by the poet
Technique
Quote
What it makes you think
Alliteration/Metaphor
spools of suffering set out
The harsh S sound
reminds us of the harsh
world he operates in
How he sees himself and
his mission – to show the
truth, to convert people
Simile
as though this were a
church and he a priest
Metaphor/Alliteration
solutions slop
Actual sound of the work
lets us imagine being
there
Emotive
fields which don't
explode beneath the feet
of running children
The innocent always
suffer
Imagery
blood stained into foreign Blood is cheap in these
dust
places. It is often spilled.
Sentence Structure - A
short direct sentence
Something is happening
Why “something” ?
Does he understand what
it is ? Creates tension,
anticipation.
Techniques:
sentence structure - a short direct sentence
imagery - a picture appears in the reader's mind
onomatopoeia - the sound of an action is heard in the sound the word makes
simile - a comparison using "like" or "as"
alliteration - words beside or close to each other begin with the same letter
The poet’s word choice.
Word choice
There are interesting choices of words in the poem:
Explain what you think these words are used for in the context of the
poem.
Word
Intone
Solutions
Rural
Stained
Supplement
What this makes the reader think
Idea of a priest saying a mass in a
chanting/preaching tone for effect
and praise. In the similar way a
priest prepares for a funeral mass,
remembering the dead, the
photographer prepares his
photographs as a remembrance of
those who died in his pictures.
"Solutions" refers literally to the
developing fluid in the trays, but
also suggests the idea of solving
the political problems which cause
war - "solutions" which he does
not have, of course.
The word 'Rural' stands out as it
creates the image of an idealised
England that is covered in perfect
countryside that is pure and has
beautiful views. It suggests that
England is peaceful place in
comparison with the panic and
chaos of war.
The word ‘Stained’ suggests the
blood will leave a mark on the
ground when it dries. It will also
leave an eternal mark on the
memory of the photographer, who
will never forget the traumatic
image of the dead man; it will be
ingrained in his mind.
A newspaper supplement gives
additional news that is not used in
the main headlines or newspaper
itself. It suggests that the pictures
are of secondary importance, not
significant enough to make the
main headline and not interesting
enough to the reader who doesn’t
really care enough to remember
their important message.
This essay may be used by the teacher in any way you think is
appropriate. It may be a cloze, sequencing or peer ( tell students this is
someone from another class’s work) assessment task. It could also be
used as a close reading homework assignment.
The surface subject of the poem is the war photographer of the
title but at a deeper level the poem explores the difference between
"Rural England" and places where wars are fought (Northern Ireland, the
Lebanon and Cambodia), between the comfort or indifference of the
newspaper editor and its readers and the suffering of the people in the
photographs.
The photographer in the poem is anonymous: he could be any of
those who record scenes of war. He is not so much a particular individual
as an observer and recorder of others' lives. He is an outsider
("alone/With spools of suffering") who moves between two worlds but is
comfortable in neither. The "ordered rows" of film spools may suggest
how the photographer tries to bring order to what he records, to
interpret or make sense of it. The image also conjures up visions of a
graveyard scene where the spools of film are gravestones.
The simile which compares him to a priest shows how seriously he takes
his job, and how (by photographing them) he stands up for those who
cannot help themselves. His darkroom resembles a church in which his red
light is like a coloured lantern. The image is also appropriate because, like
a priest, he teaches how fragile we are and how short life is. ("All flesh is
grass" is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah
contrasts the shortness of human life with eternal religious truths - "the
Word of the Lord" which "abides forever"). In the poem, the sentence
follows a list of names. These are places where life is even briefer than
normal, because of wars.
The second stanza contrasts the photographer's calmness when taking
pictures with his attitude as he develops them. If his hands shake when
he takes pictures, they won't be any good, but in the darkroom he can
allow his hands to tremble. This suggests that the full impact of the
photographs is brought home to him only now. "Solutions" refers literally
to the developing fluid in the trays, but also suggests the idea of solving
the political problems which cause war - "solutions" which he does not
have, of course. Duffy contrasts the fields in England with those abroad as if the photographer thinks English fields unusual for not being
minefields. The image is shocking, because he thinks of land mines as
exploding not under soldiers but under "the feet of running children".
What "is happening" in the third stanza is that an image is gradually
appearing as a photo develops. "Ghost" is ambiguous (it has more than one
meaning). It suggests the faint emerging image, but also that the man in
the photo is dead (which is why the picture was taken). The photographer
recalls both the reaction of the wife on seeing her husband die. He is not
able to ask for permission to take the picture (either there is no time or
he does not speak the language or both) but he seeks "approval without
words". It is as if the wife needs to approve of his recording the event
while the blood stains "into foreign dust".
"In black and white" is ambiguous: it suggests the monochrome
photographs but also the ideas of telling the truth and of the simple
contrast of good and evil. The photographer has recorded some hundred
images which are only a small sample of what has happened, yet only a
handful will ever appear in print. Although the reader may be moved, to
tears even, this sympathy is short-lived, between bathing and a drink
before lunch. Duffy imagines the photographer finally looking down, from
an aeroplane, on England (either coming or going). This is the country
which pays his wages ("where/he earns his living") but where people "do
not care" about the events he records.
In writing about the poem try to focus on some of these details. Look also
at the poem's form. This form is quite traditional - the rhyme scheme and
metre are the same in each stanza (there are rhyming couplets on the
second and third lines and on the last two lines; each line is a pentameter,
which will be familiar to you from Shakespeare's plays).
Duffy obviously feels something in common with her subject - she uses his
experience to voice her own criticism of how comfortable Britons look at pictures of
suffering, but do not know the reality. She sees the photographer (far removed from
the paparazzi of the tabloids) as both priest and journalist. The reader's response to the
Sunday newspaper is almost like going to church - for a while we are reminded of our
neighbour's suffering, but by lunchtime we have forgotten what we learned.
Write about a poem that deals with the subject of work but also has a deeper
meaning. You should refer to use of techniques such as sound, word choice,
structure, imagery or any other relevant way to convey the poet’s message.
In the poem ………………………….. by Carol ………………….. the topic of work,
and especially what a war photographer does as part of his job, is examined. The
poem deals with more than just the subject of work; it also looks at the theme of how
other people treat the work of the photographer and questions us about how we think
about the suffering of others in foreign lands. The poet has a particular interest as she
personally knows the British photographer Don McCullin.
The poem is about a ………………………….. who has returned from a
……………….. with a series of photographs of …………………….. from that
particular area. He is said to be “finally alone” which make the reader think ….. . In
the line “……………………………..” we notice how the poet uses alliteration of
the “s” sound to represent how harsh conditions depicted in the photos are. Duffy then
employs the image of the photographer as a priest and the reader asks if the
cameraman thinks of his work as …………………
The second stanza begins with the simple statement, “………………………………..”
We feel that he is trying to do a worthwhile job and feels that he is serving the public
by …………… . The scene in the darkroom shows his hands which “did not
………………………….. but ………………..” The writer tells us exactly what
conditions were like in the war zone by contrasting that place with home , where
“fields……………………………….”
In the darkroom “Something is happening.” This refers to the actual development of
the pictures and also the ideas he has of how the photographer thinks the British
public react to them. He recalls “ the cries of ……………………………..” We ask
about this “approval” and what he means by this. Is it …………………………….. ?
Later we read that he does what someone “must” and this word choice makes us
think ………………. The third stanza ends in a chilling image, as “the
blood………………………… “
In the last stanza the scene moves away from the darkroom to the plane in which the
photographer travels. The poet begins by using the phrase “ a hundred ……..” The
choice of this word in deliberate, not “images” or “pictures”. In doing so he makes us
think ………………….. From these hundred the editor “picks out” five or six”. This
makes the editor sound …………………………………….. . But the photographer is
very aware of the power of his pictures which make “ the reader’s eyes
…………………. “ We know, as he does, that their power is short – lived.
The last line of the poem is very powerful and it conveys the writer’s message
perfectly Now go on to discuss what you see is CAD’s point – clearly she tries to
make us think of how the war ph’s job is both cruel and kind at the same time. As Tim
Page said,”all war photography is anti-war”. We see how the photographer reacts to
the images he captures and then how the public react to them. How does he feel about
this public reaction ?She invites the reader to ask the question “Does such
photography have a useful role in society or are we somehow making suffering less
painful for us to endure and more easy to ignore ? What do you think ?
Peer / Self assessment sheet …………….
War Photographer
What you have to do
Content and ideas
are outlined
Setting is
explained
Technical aspects
are identified
Word choice is
explained
For each of the
above you have
talked about the
effect it has on the
reader.
The world of the
photographer and
his work is
explored and
commented upon
Proof that you’ve done it ?
Comment on how well you’ve done