War Photographer

Question 1

The metaphor “spools of suffering”

Answer 1

links the content of the photographic images in the spools to the subjects of the photographs to highlight the awareness of the (on-going, cyclical) misery endured by the subjects.

Question 2

The image “spools …ordered rows”

Answer 2

compares the meticulous arrangement of the spools to the graves in a (war) cemetery to highlight the scale of deaths witnessed/the violent nature of the deaths.

Question 3

The image of the “dark room” with its red light as a “church”

Answer 3

compares the interior lighting within the darkroom to that of a church to highlight the gloomy, funereal atmosphere of the darkroom.

Question 4

Word choice of “red”

Answer 4

suggests danger (of war zone/pictures) or blood (represents the horror of the war zone).

Question 5

The image of the photographer as “a priest … intone a Mass”

Answer 5

suggests a similarity between the role of the photographer and the priest in terms of the seriousness of the processes they are involved in/the importance of their roles in spreading the word.

Question 6

The image “All flesh is grass”

Answer 6

compares human life to short lived “grass” to highlight the transient nature of human life (especially in times of conflict).

Question 7

The word choice of “Rural England”

Answer 7

suggests the idealised view of England as predominantly countryside which is leafy, peaceful, natural, wholesome.

Question 8

The juxtaposition of “ordinary pain”

Answer 8

suggests how trivial and unimportant the problems faced in Britain are compared to those in war zones.

Question 9

The word choice of “simple weather” and/or “dispel”

Answer 9

suggests how shallow/easily addressed the problems faced in Britain are.

Question 10

The word choice of “explode”

Answer 10

suggests the unpredictability and danger of life in the war zone.

Question 11

The word choice of “nightmare heat”

Answer 11

suggests extreme climactic conditions endured (with suggestion of oppressive or threatening atmosphere).

Question 12

The word choice of “hand, which did not tremble then”

Answer 12

• emphasises contrast between his ability to cope with the job at the time and the impact on him now as he reflects on it.

Question 13

Word choice - “twist”

Answer 13

suggests the subject’s body distorted by pain/injury; writhing in agony.

Question 14

Word choice - “half-formed ghost”

Answer 14

suggests memories of death/being haunted by the memories.

Question 15

Word choice of “cries”

Answer 15

suggests the anguish of the man’s wife.

Question 16

Enjambement “cries/of this man’s wife”

Answer 16

suggests emotional turmoil, uncontained by ordinary line structure.

Question 17

Word choice of “blood stained”

Answer 17

suggests the scale of the violence remembered/the indelible nature of the memory.

Question 18

use of sense words such as “blood stained” and “cries”

Answer 18

suggests the vivacity of the memory.

Question 19

Word choice of “foreign dust”

Answer 19

suggests abandoned and forgotten.

Question 20

Word choice - “A hundred agonies”

Answer 20

suggests the emotional power/quantity of images that the public respond to in a limited way.

Question 21

Word choice - “black and white”

Answer 21

suggests the veracity of the images that the public respond to in a limited way.

Question 22

The contrast in numbers, “hundred” with “five or six”,

Answer 22

illustrates the public’s limited capacity for images of this horrific nature.

Question 23

Word choice of “prick with tears”

Answer 23

suggests the public’s limited emotional response to the images.

Question 24

“between the bath and the pre- lunch beers”

Answer 24

suggests the brief impact of the suffering shown in the images.

Question 25

The positioning/tone of “they do not care”

Answer 25

reinforces sense of the British public’s indifference to the suffering.