War photographer Flashcards
(12 cards)
Context:
Carol Ann duffy firends with war photographers Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths
Form and Structure:
Form-ABBCDD rhyme scheme, which adds to the controlled, methodical tone. This calm and detached structure contrasts with the emotional weight of the subject matter
Written in third-person. This perspective reflects the photographer’s role as an observer of suffering rather than a direct participant.
Structure-Dramatic monologue gives an insight into gives hand experiences and thoughts of one individual
A half-formed ghost”
Metaphor: Refers to a developing image in the darkroom, but also suggests a literal ghost
“A hundred agonies in black-and-white”
Emotive metaphor to describe his photos. Having the pictures printed seems to confirm and solidify the suffering they show
“The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers”
Irony- The response of the reader contrasts with the deep trauma experienced by the photographer
Duffy highlights the apathy of the public, who quickly move on after seeing the images “tears rhyming with “beers”`
“of running children in a nightmare heat”
This line alludes to the famous image of of Nick Ut’s napalm girl photographed in 1972 in the Vietnam War.
“All flesh is grass”
comes from the biblical Isaiah 40:6
highlights the fragility of human life
“as though this was a church and he a priest preparing to intone a mass”
simile that reflects the seriousness aspect of the photographer’s task.
Themes
Conflicting emotions, Reality of conflict, Memory
Comparisons
Poppies
Remains
Bayonet charge
Theme of Effect and Reality of War:
Carol Ann Duffy’s War Photographer starkly exposes the psychological toll of conflict, contrasting the immediate horrors of warzones with the detached comfort of Western society. The photographer, developing photos in his darkroom, becomes a metaphor for the uneasy mediation of suffering—his images (“a hundred agonies in black-and-white”) are reduced to fleeting news items, while he grapples with the trauma of bearing witness. The poem’s regular structure (rhyming quatrains) mirrors the mechanical process of developing photos, yet the enjambment (“he has a job to do… hands which did not tremble then / though seem to now”) reveals his fractured composure. Duffy critiques the commodification of pain, as readers “do not care” beyond the newspaper’s “five or six” photos, underscoring war’s double alienation: for victims, unending agony; for observers, momentary pity. The final image of “ordinary pain” in rural England highlights the privilege of distance, leaving the photographer—and reader—complicit in the cycle of violence.
Theme of Individual Experiences:
Duffy’s War Photographer delves into the isolating burden of witnessing conflict, portraying the photographer as a solitary figure caught between war’s brutality and society’s indifference. The poem emphasizes his personal trauma—”hands which did not tremble then / though seem to now”— a delayed emotional response revealing how suppressed fear surfaces in safety also. His darkroom becomes a metaphorical confessional, where developing photos (“a half-formed ghost”) forces him to relive horrors alone, contrasting with the public’s passive consumption of war as “five or six” disposable images. The juxtaposition of warzones (“blood stained into foreign dust”) and “ordinary pain” in rural England underscores his alienation, as his experiences remain incomprehensible to those untouched by conflict. Ultimately, Duffy presents war’s true cost not in headlines but in the silent suffering of individuals—both the photographer and his unnamed subjects—whose stories are framed, cropped, and forgotten.
