War Photographer Quotes & Analysis

Question 0

With spools of suffering set out in ordered rows

Answer 0

Imposes structure on the chaos of war- perhaps photographer trying to impose order on chaos on mind
Suggestion of mass graves/ bodies

Question 1

In his darkroom he is finally alone

Answer 1

‘Darkroom’ is literally a room for developing photographs
The word dark perhaps suggests the job takes the photographer to a dark place mentally
‘Finally’ suggests that he has been longing to escape someone or something
Being ‘alone’ reflects the loneliness of his job: separated from his subject, his editor and his readers

Question 2

The only light is red and softly glows,
As though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to atone a mass

Answer 2

Red- Blood and slaughter
Implies how serious the photographer takes his job like a priest would/photographer uses work to spread the word. He is trying to lead people and make them see the truth.

Question 3

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

Answer 3

Lists places where wars still raged when the poem was written/each one a separate conflict- the world is full of war.
All flesh is grass- Stresses the shortness of life, especially for those in war torn areas

Question 4

He has a job to do

Answer 4

Blunt, matter-of-fact sentence- perhaps attitude the photographer has to adopt to get the job done

Question 5

Solutions slop in trays

Answer 5

Literally chemicals to develop photographs
Metaphorically the fact that the photographer does not have solutions to war, it’s complex, hard to pin down, messy
‘Slop’ word choice implies carelessness

Question 6

Beneath his hands which did not tremble then

Though seem to now.

Answer 6

Why did they not tremble then? Why now?
The reader is left to think about how the war photographer could function well in a war zone and be calm there but here at home the emotional impact hits him.

Question 7

Rural England.

Answer 7

Word choice suggests safe and easy life of westerners. This is developed later with ‘fields’- in rural England these are safe and beautiful. In a war zone they can be filled with mines and danger.

Question 8

Home again

To ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel

Answer 8

Oxymoron- ‘Ordinary pain’- Can pain ever be ordinary? And word choice of ‘simple’. The language suggests that you cannot compare the trivial ‘problems’ experienced by pampered westerners with the chaos and pain of living through conflict

Question 9

To fields which don’t explode beneath the feet

Of running children in nightmare heat

Answer 9

Imagery and Contrast: Image of barefoot children running in grass for fun (in rural England) is twisted by the contrasting description of the war zone- children running for their lives and being blown up by mines. Nightmare heat suggests the unbearable, inescapable pain of the war zone and the idea that it’s a horror only our imaginations can understand. Nightmare also introduces the war photographer being haunted by images of the war.

Question 10

Ordinary pain

Answer 10

True meaning to the poem- contrast between the comfortable (and complacent) lives of those in the west as opposed to people suffering in war zones.

Question 11

Something is happening

Answer 11

As in previous stanza, short, simple sentence- we have a matter of fact sentence but the meaning isn’t clear. What is happening? We know there’s a change.

Question 12

A strangers features

Faintly start to twist before his eyes,

Answer 12

Word choice- the use of the verb ‘twist’ suggests face contorted in pain, agony and also that the photographer is beginning to recall the moment

Question 13

A half-formed ghost

Answer 13

Imagery- literal and metaphoric- the actual photo of the man is beginning to develop in his darkroom, to come into focus. Speaking figuratively it implies that the war photographer is now being haunted by the dying man he saw in the war zone

Question 14

He remembers the cries

Of this mans wife, how he sought approval

Answer 14

Word choice- photographer’s dilemma- has a job to do and needs to take the photo but has feelings of guilt about standing back like a voyeur (observer)
He is torn between doing the job and intruding on the misery of others. Grief is a very private emotion. He needs to make it public to get the world to care.
Word choice- ‘remembers the cries’- the sound of the wife’s sorrow, her anguished cries- builds the intensity of the memory. The use of sensory description (sound) shows us how real the memory is to him.

Question 15

Without words to do what someone must

And how the blood stained into foreign dust

Answer 15

Description makes the audience think about the situation more carefully. A stain is lasting, hard to remove- as people’s blood stains the land there is a strong image that their country is being marked and changed by these deaths. The use of ‘foreign’ moves back to fact that the war photographer comes from a country living in peace who may see the war zone as too far away to care about. Here foreign reminds us they’re different from us.

Question 16

A hundred agonies in black and white

Answer 16

Metaphor-photographs literally monochrome/ yet figuratively they become manifestations of pain, each one telling a story of pain and suffering.
Black and white could be linked to:
Photo
Good/Evil
Truth/Lies

Question 17

From which his editor will pick out five or six

For Sunday’s supplement.

Answer 17

Word choice- from literally ‘hundreds’ of photographs the editor ‘pick’ a mere few to suit the article; they don’t convey the full horror of war/ suggests this is done in a casual, off-hand way. We see that the war photographers work isn’t appreciated.

Question 18

The readers eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.

Answer 18

The phrase ‘prick with tears’ suggests the sensation of almost crying: considered alongside the short duration of the readers’ distress, this is a clear criticism of their shallow response to the horrifying pictures. The words ‘bath’ and ‘pre-lunch beers’ also suggest luxury and indulgence which is in stark contrast to the lives of those captured on film by the photographer.
Contrast to war zone- easy life, images and suffering soon forgotten as life goes on.

Question 19

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where

He earns his living and they do not care.

Answer 19

Photographer is en route to another assignment: poem is cyclical. Unceasing wars
Who are they? Tone is very critical of newsreaders and of readers generally. Are we, the reader, included in ‘they’- are we different to the newspaper readers? Are we OK with our reaction?
Suggests the photographs become mere entertainment/ short lived and sensational also finishes the idea of emotional detachment- they care about something different.