war photographer

• Futility

  There is a half rhyme between as "the tears" occur "between the bath and pre-lunch beers". This creates an unsatisfying sound which shows the horrific speed with which people return to their privileged lives after glancing at the photos. The half rhyme also increases the pace of the line to contrast with the long, drawn out process of developing the photos to show how no one cares about these issues as much as he does.
• The extensive scale of conflict

  Duffy uses asyndetic listing in "Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh" to refer to a wide range of conflicts. The plosives in this list create an aggressive sound, highlighting the way in which war impacts so many people. Meanwhile the caesura causes the speaker to pause over each word and consider it individually.
• Impact on civilians

  A sinister tone is established from the outset by starting with the photographer "in his darkroom...finally alone" as well as the violent connotations of the colour imagery in "red and softly glows". This could be interpreted to show how even in the solace of his darkroom, the photographer is not safe from the horrors he has witnessed. The solitude of the photographer depicted throughout the poem implies that he feels he is alone in dealing with the emotions he is feeling.
• Suffering

  Duffy's use of sibilance in "spools of suffering" creates the impression of the true nature of war being hushed and quietened so people can continue with their everyday lives. By describing the photographer as having to "pick out five or six" photos, Duffy shows how the public will only want to see a few photos before the reality of the situation is to horrifying to continue viewing. This shows how people do not care about suffering that does not directly impact them as they can easily ignore it. The description of the dust as "foreign" creates a distinction between the two places that the people of England can easily make.
• Response to conflict

  • The sibilant alliteration in "solutions slop in trays" highlights the phrase's significance. The literal meaning is that he is developing photos in a dark room. However, the implicit meaning is that he is trying to offer solutions to the conflicts that he witnesses by raising public awareness of them, an awareness that might in turn lead to the public putting pressure on their government to help end them.
  • The painful connotations of "twist" in "a stranger's features...twist before his eyes" shows the pain the images capture as well as the painful memories they induce in the photographer. His role allows him to preserve the memory of those who have died; which is reflected in the paradoxical metaphor "half formed ghost".
• Response to conflict

  There is a juxtaposition throughout the poem between lexis from the semantic field of violence and religious imagery to suggest that people are not doing enough to prevent war. The photographer is compared to "a priest preparing to impart mass" which reminds the listener of the Christian value of peace but is in opposition to the descriptions of violence also featured in the poem. This implies that people are hypocritical because in theory they are against violence but are doing nothing to stop it when it is actually occurring.
• Internal conflict

  The photographer seems to be struggling with reconciling his life in "rural England". He is only capable of viewing "rural England" through the comparative lens of conflict as he notices that roads "don't explode" and there is no "nightmare heat". Rural England seems to be defined by its contrast to a conflict zone.
• Internal Conflict

  His struggle is further shown in the simile that compares him to "a priest preparing to impart a mass" as if like a priest connecting humanity to God, the photographer is duty-bound to connect people at home to those suffering in a war. While the photographer may feel relief at his distance from the "hundred agonies" of the conflict zones, he also feels alienated from and disgusted by the English people, who live frivolously "baths and pre-lunch beers" and are indifferent to the horrors taking place abroad, on "foreign dust". Therefore, he can only stare "impassively" at the country that is presumably his homeland. His tone is also angry ("they do not care"). This emotion is further shown through the collective pronoun "they" which creates an accusatory tone which could invoke feelings of guilt in the reader.
• Cyclic structure

  The poem ends by describing the photographer returning to the warzone he came from on "the aeroplane". This cyclical structure creates a sense of futile repetition and continuation of past mistakes and acts as evidence that the photographer's work has not changed anything, leaving the listener with his realisation "he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care". In this way, the poem ends on a defeated note. The photographer's sense of the readers' indifference (or superficial sentimentality) contrasts with the firm sense of vocation that he expresses earlier "do what someone must" and the religious simile in the first stanza that suggests his work is as important as a priest's.
• Rigid form

  • Duffy uses a tight form of six lines per stanza as well as a constant ABBCDD rhyme scheme. This rigidity of the form is at odds with the chaos caused by conflict and perhaps reflects the order of "rural England". As this structure does not change throughout, it can be interpreted that war photographers lack the power to change anything as his work falls upon an unreceptive audience.
  • The structure also reflects the meticulous way in which the photographer works, as he places his photos into "ordered rows". His sombre, careful ritual is perhaps his way of trying to maintain a sense of normality or attempting to control his thoughts, emotions and memories, which perhaps threaten to overwhelm him (his hands "tremble" in anticipation of what will be revealed and therefore relived).
• Perspective

  The poem is written in the third person despite it describing an emotionally fraught moment for the man. This reflects the feelings of detachment the photographer experiences at the scenes of conflict, which allow him to continue with his job. The speaker sets himself off from the British public by the use of the accusatory pronoun "they". He appears a solitary figure who is alienated from his fellow citizens.
• A war photographer has just came to his darkroom after he has returned from a trip abroad. He lays out his photos and recollects of the places he has been to. He starts thinking about the differences of the settings in rural England and the war- zones. The people looking at his photos only look at them for a moment, feel a twinge of saddens and carry on with their lives again. He is also thinking about the dilemma that he has while fulfilling his job; to help the victims of war or just to take photographs...
• ''with spools of suffering set out''

  Technique: Sibilance

  Analysis: Mimics the dark nature of the photos and their contents.
• ''all flesh is grass''

  Technique: Allusion to Biblical Imagery

  Analysis: A phrase from the Old Testament, which is often interpreted as meaning that life is transitory (fleeting). Emphasises the scale of death and the fragility of life. Also suggests that life is meaningless in war.
• "He has a job to do."

  Analysis: He has business to complete. This is reinforced by the business-like tone created by the monosyllables and the short sentence.
• "which did not tremble then though seem to now"

  Analysis: It seems that at the scene of the conflict he was calm but now he is agitated, perhaps because he will soon relive the conflict through the photos he is developing.
• "ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel"

  Analysis: In 'rural England' problems are trivial and a sunny day can make it all better. This contrasts with the war-torn settings he has been in, where pain, both emotional and physical, is devastating.
• "The reader's eyeballs prick with tears"

  Analysis: The choice of the word 'eyeballs' instead of eyes suggests the act of crying after seeing the photos is almost mechanical, a reflex. It suggests they are not truly affected by the photos - it is only the physical process of secreting tears that they go through; they don't have a genuine, non-superficial emotional response. 'Eyeballs' is also ugly, which reflects the ugliness of the reader's disingenuous response.
• "A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six"

  Analysis: The agonies of war are curated for the Sunday supplementary papers - it seems distasteful and exploitative
• "The reader's eyeballs prick / With tears between the bath and the pre-lunch beers"


  • This line highlights the disconnection between the horrors depicted in the photograph and the casual, short-lived emotional response of the reader.
  • The use of "prick" suggests a brief moment of discomfort, but the mention of "pre-lunch beers" shows how quickly this feeling is forgotten, emphasizing the indifference of those not directly affected by war.
• • War Photographer was written by Carol Ann Duffy in response to her awareness of the emotional toll on journalists and photographers who capture the brutal realities of war. It critiques how war is presented in the media and the detachment of those who view it from the safety of their homes.
  • Duffy explores the conflict between the photographer's professional role and his emotional response to witnessing suffering, making the poem a reflection on ethics, memory, and the limitations of visual media in conveying true human pain.