‘The War Photographer’ : Depicting Mankind’s Lack of Interest

Reading Time: 4 minutes

 

 Carol Ann Duffy first published her poem “War Photographer” in the 1985 collection Standing Female Nude. It later appeared in another collection, New Selected Poems 1984-2004, published in 2004. The poem describes a war photographer’s experiences and the nature of his job. War photographers risk their lives to capture images of war, often featured in newspapers and magazines with striking headlines.

Duffy’s poem expresses her views on the agonies of war and humanity’s apathy towards them, particularly among those living in peaceful parts of the world. She wrote the poem, inspired by her friendship with two renowned war photographers, Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths. Duffy was immensely fascinated by their choice between recording horrific events and helping people in a casualty. The poem thus expresses the internal conflict war photographers face.

In the poem, a war photographer is processing photos in his darkroom. He watches photographs develop before his eyes. He compares the war front to his peaceful hometown. Suddenly, he remembers the faces of the people in his photographs and what they were doing on the front while he captured them. He recalls approaching a man’s wife for permission to photograph him suffering in the war. The photographer realises that people/readers are interested in his work/photos only for a short period. His hard work will be reduced to just a few pictures in a glossy magazine. In the poem’s concluding lines, the photographer realises that nobody cares about him or the people he captures.

ANALYSIS

 At the beginning of the poem, the photographer is alone in his darkroom, developing his photographs. He develops photos from film of suffering on the war front. They are all set out in rows for processing. The only light in the room is an alarming red. The photographer has visited the war fronts in the world, including Belfast, Beirut, and Phnom Penh. The poet compares the photographer to a priest preparing to chant a Mass. The stanza ends with a quote from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah – “All flesh is grass”.  The simile comparing the photographer to a priest shows how seriously he takes his work. His darkroom resembles a church, and his red light resembles a coloured lantern. The poet uses this image effectively. Like a priest, he also preaches about how fragile and short-lived our lives have become. Then the photographer tries to organise what he has recorded, interpreting it through “ordered rows” of film spools. The image also evokes a graveyard scene, with the film spools serving as gravestones. 

The second stanza begins with “He has a job to do.”Here, readers notice the photographer is engaged in his work as “ Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands”. He did not tremble while taking war photographs, but now, while developing them, he seems to. This highlights the differentiation between the two phases in the photographer’s life. In the first phase, he remains calm and dedicated to his job. When he returns to his darkroom and starts developing the pictures, his hands begin to tremble, and he is no longer as calm as before. The photos of dead soldiers and people in the prints he develops affect him. This suggests the pictures’ impact stays with him even after he gets home. The word “Solutions” may imply fluid in the trays, but it may also suggest resolving the political problems that primarily cause war. Duffy also distinguishes England’s fields from those abroad. The photographer says England’s fields are cool and unlike those abroad, where they are often mined.  There is shocking imagery when the photographer states that the land mines are explosive, not under soldiers but under “the feet of running children”.

In the next stanza, Duffy presents a haunting picture of the war front. She creates suspense by stating, “Something is happening.” The poet once again takes the photographer to his painful memories. While developing the photos, “a stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes.” It resembles a “half-formed ghost”. This emotive language suggests how he is now seeing the soldier die compared to when he was taking live photographs of that person. The photographer then suddenly remembers the cry of the wife of this wounded man. In this pathetic situation, the photographer seeks approval from the dying/injured man’s wife to take his photograph. He remembers “How the blood stained into foreign dust”.

In the concluding stanza, the poet says that the photographer has captured “ a hundred agonies in black and white” and from which “his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday supplement”. The readers for whom these photographs are printed in Sunday supplements are casual viewers. “The reader’s eyeballs prick,” but it isn’t permanent, as the readers would soon shift their focus to something else, like “pre-lunch beers”. Some readers may become emotional after viewing the photos. Still, the photographer knows they will never understand the victims’ suffering or the pain they experienced while capturing those photos. Through “A hundred agonies,” the poet describes the contents of the photos and depicts how devastating war is. In the concluding  line, the photographer views the war front from an aeroplane, and the poet concludes, “He earns his living, and they do not care.”

The poem explores the psychological and ethical dilemmas war photographers face. The poem explores destruction and the brutality of war, as well as impassivity and humanity’s ignorance. The poem has an interesting structure. It consists of four six-line stanzas. The poet largely follows an ABBC DD rhyme scheme, with each stanza ending in a rhyming couplet. Enjambment connects the poem’s thought process.  The line “Belfast, Beirut, Phnom Penh” uses trochaic feet. Alliteration appears in the line “spools of suffering set out”.  In “as though this were a church and he a priest”, Duffy employs a simile. The poet skilfully uses imagery, especially in the line “blood-stained into foreign dust”. In The War Photographer, Duffy combines stark realism with rich, layered symbolism to depict freezing moments of suffering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKS CITED

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/war-photographer/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsp82hv/revision/1