War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy examines the emotions and frustrations of a photographer who has come home from conflict situations to develop the images he has taken. The poem explores the role of the media in documenting wars, and the response of the general public. It is a challenging read.
This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying AQA’s GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Power and Conflict page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide.
War Photographer
In his dark room he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands, which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.
A hundred agonies in black and white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns his living and they do not care.
What is 'War Photographer' all about?
Summary of stanza 1
The opening stanza describes the photographer in his developing room, referred to as a ‘dark room’. Darkrooms use red light as it does not over expose the photo paper, which normal white or yellow light would do. The red light gives the photographer enough light to see by, but not enough to damage the photographs. The photographer’s work is as sacred as a priest’s work. The speaker then lists well known cities which have seen terrible conflict and war: Belfast, which experienced violence during the Troubles (approx. 1968-1998), Beirut, which experienced violence during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and Phnom Penh, which experienced horrific violence during the Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979).
Summary of stanza 2
The speaker describes the professionalism of the photographer, whose hands were steady at he did his work in the middle of conflict zones. Despite his calmness at the time, his hands now shake and tremble as he develops these photographs, showing the human emotion and post-trauma reaction of a person who cares.
The speaker contrasts the ease and safety of his home in England with the terrifying danger of what he witnessed while working.
Summary of stanza 3
In stanza three, the speaker describes the images in the photographs which appear on the photo paper as the chemicals in the tray work. These images appear faintly at first, as if emerging like a ghost, causing the photographer to remember a traumatic the scene in his mind.
Summary of stanza 4
In the final verse, the speaker comments that these images of pain, horror and trauma will be picked over with a casual attitude by an editor of a newspaper. The editor and the reader of the paper will remain almost emotionless as they skim over the images, not registering the importance of what they see and what is really going on in the world.
Context of 'War Photographer'
Carol Ann Duffy's personal life and education
Carol Ann Duffy is a 20th and 21st Century Scottish poet.
Born in 1955, her early years were spent in the Gorbals, a working-class area of Glasgow. At six years old, she moved with her parents (of Irish descent) to Stafford, England. As a child, she developed a deep love for literature and poetry, and this early exposure to the power of words and storytelling significantly shaped her future career as a writer.
At 16, Duffy moved to Liverpool and began a ten-year relationship with then 39-year-old Liverpudlian poet Adrain Henri. She says of him:
“He gave me confidence … he was great. It was all poetry, very heady, and he was never faithful. He thought poets has a duty to be unfaithful.”
from The Times article of 5th September 2005, by Jeanette Winterson
Duffy’s love of literature was fostered and encouraged by her school teachers and her ten year relationship with Henri, along with the poets, writers and artists she mixed with during that decade. She studied philosophy at the University of Liverpool and went on to earn a master’s degree.
Throughout her life, Duffy has been open about her sexuality and has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. Her personal relationships have also influenced her work, particularly her long-term partnership with fellow poet Jackie Kay, with whom she lived and raised children between 1991 and 2005. Duffy’s personal experiences, emotions, and reflections often find their way into her poetry, lending it a deeply personal and relatable quality.
Duffy's career achievements
Duffy boasts a remarkable body of work that has earned her numerous accolades and critical acclaim throughout her career. Her debut collection, “Standing Female Nude” (1985), contributed significantly to her rise to the poetry scene, attracting attention for its sharp wit and feminist perspectives. Over time, her evocative and thought-provoking poetry has continually captivated readers.
Notably, in 2009, Duffy made history by becoming the first female, as well as the first openly gay Poet Laureate in the United Kingdom, a highly respected position she held until 2019.
Throughout her career, Duffy has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Book Award, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
If you would like to read other poems by Carol Ann Duffy, check out Before You Were Mine, In Mrs Tilscher’s Class or Last Post, which is another poem about war, but from a different perspective to War Photographer.
Context of 'War Photographer'
Published in 1985, War Photographer explores the impact of the media and images that are produced of war. At the time of publishing this poem in 1985, the Vietnam War had finished a decade previously, the Troubles raged on in Northern Ireland, Lebanon was in the middle of a civil war, and Cambodia had experienced brutality on an enormous scale. These conflict situations, and many others, dominated the news as reporters recounted first hand experiences of war.
Duffy’s poem examines the reporting of images of war. One image in particular of the Vietnam War had a huge impact of public perceptions of war, and caused the American government to rethink their actions in the country. That image was of children running away from their village as it burned to the ground following a napalm attack. The photograph was taken by Nick Ut and you can see it, and read the back story in this Guardian article.
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War began in 1954 as a result of the division of the country into two: North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The North was Communist and wanted to reunite the country as one Communist nation, while South Vietnam, supported by The United States fought against communism.
Support for the Vietnam War was initially strong in the United States of America, but as the war dragged on, support dwindled. In 1969, when Nixon became president, he promised to withdraw troops. In 1973, troops withdrew but the US continued to offer military and all US troops had left Vietnam.
In all, the war lasted for more than 21 years with the victory eventually falling to the North. In 1975/76, the two countries were united under Communism.
The Vietnam War resulted in many casualties: more than 1.3 million Vietnamese and approximately 58,000 American troops were killed, as well as approximately two million civilians.
Sites of conflict mentioned in the poem
Line-by-line analysis of 'War Photographer'
Stanza 1
In his dark room he is finally alone
- The speaker not the photographer himself but rather a third person omniscient narrator who sees and knows all, with a particular focus on the photograph who is the protagonist of the poem. This is made clear in the opening line which refers to ‘his’ and ‘he’ rather than ‘my’ or ‘I’.
- A ‘dark room’ is the setting for the poem, establishing the semantic field (a category of words all about the same topic) of photography vocabulary which has already been established by the title.
- There is a sense of peace, calm and isolation in the line, as it is
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
- The metaphor ‘Spools of suffering’ compares the photographic film containing images of war to the emotions felt by those depicted in them, the people who are suffering. The metaphor emphasises his detachment and distance from the experiences depicted in the photographs.
- Sibilance is used to highlight the sinister impact of ‘spools of suffering’.
- Juxtaposition is used to compare the ‘spools of suffering’ to ‘ordered rows’ suggesting methodical organisation and routine in the processing room contrasting to the chaos and disorder of war.
The only light is red and softly glows,
- In a literal interpretation, the adjective ‘red’ paints a very clear image of the photographer’s darkroom. A darkroom is a studio for developing photographs and uses red light as its frequency does not over-expose the photographic paper, unlike white or yellow light.
- In a metaphorical interpretation, the adjective ‘red’ reminds the reader of blood and the violence of the warzones depicted in the images.
- In another interpretation, a red light that ‘softly glows’ reminds the reader of the perpetual light that burns in a Catholic Church, as is suggested in the next lines.
as though this were a church and he
- The extended metaphor of the photographer’s studio as a church, and the photographer as the priest is used to show the reverence with which he handles his images.
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
- The imagery of the photographer as a priest is emphasised by the alliteration of ‘priest preparing’.
- The end stop on this line adds a pause, emphasising the reverence with which the photographer works.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
- In this line, the three cities listed as a triplet are sites of recent conflict (recent to the publication of this poem in 1985). You can read more about these three conflicts in the map above.
- Full stops between each city create a very start-stop effect on this line, interrupting the fluency of the line and reflecting the interruptions of conflict. The effect is to also echo the effect of flicking through photographs, one after another.
- ‘All flesh is grass’ is a quotation from the Bible. In the Old Testament, Isaiah writes, “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” This verse supports the religious imagery established in the previous lines, and emphasises that people are fragile, like grass that withers.
Stanza 2
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
- The opening sentence is abrupt and decisive: ‘He has a job to do.’ The emotion has been removed from this line and the focus is on achieving results.
- Sibilance is used to draw attention to the phrase ‘solutions slop in trays‘.
- There is a double meaning in the word ‘solutions’: one interpretation is literal, referring to the chemical solutions which are used to develop photographs. A second possible interpretation is that the solutions to the problems of conflict slop in the trays i.e. getting the public to understand the horrors of war via photograph and media reporting. This Washington Post article suggests that photography can help end wars: perhaps this is the solution implied in the line.
beneath his hands, which did not tremble then
- The emotion which the photographer seems to have worked hard to minimise when out on location spills out now as his hands ‘tremble’.
- Enjambment is used to run these lines together, with caesurae used midline, disrupting the rhythm of the lines and causing the rhymes to be buried. The effect is maturity in the sound effects, rather than the potentially simplistic effect of rhyming couplets.
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
- Again, caesurae are used to interrupt the fluency of the line, contrasting the peace and order of home in ‘rural England’ with the chaos of conflict zones.
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
- ‘ordinary pain’ refers to the day-to-day ups and downs of life in the UK, which are generally so minor in comparison to the trauma and danger of living in a war zone. The speaker makes it clear that ‘simple weather can dispel’ these ordinary pains, emphasising the ease of life here.
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
- The use of the negative ‘fields which don’t explode’ reminds the reader of the ease of our lives compared to the lives of those in the images.
- The ‘fields which don’t explode’ is a reference to land mines, which were a huge problem in conflict zones in the Twentieth century. Charities around the world have campaigned to stop the use of landmines and to clear them from post-conflict zones. The landmine issue shot to fame when Princess Diana walked across a field in Angola which contained landmines. You can read more here.
of running children in a nightmare heat.
- This line refers to the image taken by Nick Ut which is now referred to as ‘Napalm Girl’. You can see his image here. This image helped to change the public’s perception of the Vietnam War, pushing the US government to change its policy, demonstrating that war photography can have an impact.
Stanza 3
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
- Stanza three opens with with short, powerful sentence which changes the pace and suggests a tone of curiosity.
- The caesura in the middle of the line causes the reader to stop and take a long pause before we find out what it is that is happening.
- “A stranger’s features” refers to the image which is being developed in the darkroom. This stranger is a man in a war zone, snapped by the photographer in real life, but now, in the safety of England, the man is only a two-dimensional image on a page.
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
- The speaker describes the image that appears in the solution as twisting ‘faintly’ creating an eerie effect as the photograph slowly appears on the photo paper.
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
- ‘a half-formed ghost’ has a double meaning: firstly, the image which appears slowly on the photo paper is ghostly in that it appears so faintly at first, like a ghost. Secondly, the man who was photographed is most likely now dead, and therefore a ghost.
- The caesura after ‘ghost’ adds pause, reflecting the pause the photographer makes as he remembers the scene that he witnessed.
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
- The ‘cries of this man’s wife’ is highly emotive. In this poem, the most emotive lines are those which describe the war scenes, contrasting with the ease of life back in England. This image also personalises the conflict, reminding us of the lives of those impacted by conflict.
- The moral dilemma of the war photographer now becomes clear: is it right to take photographs of people who are dying, rather than setting down the camera to help, or setting down the camera out of respect for their dignity? Does the good achieved by informing the public back home outweigh the bad?
without words to do what someone must
- ‘must’ is a significant verb choice. The speaker leaves no doubt as to the answer to the moral dilemma described above: someone has to document the conflict. It is not depicted as a glamorous or desirable responsibility, but rather a duty that leaves a lasting impact on the photographer.
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.
- The speaker finishes this emotive image with a sense of distance: the blood of the man stains foreign dust – this conflict is very far removed from life back home.
- The reference to blood connects in the reader’s mind back to the ‘red’ of the darkroom in stanza one.
Stanza 4
A hundred agonies in black and white
- ‘Agonies’ conveys intense suffering and is highly emotive. This use of visual imagery highlights the power of photography to distil complex emotions into simple yet impactful images.
- The many agonies are juxtaposed with the adjectives ‘black and white’ suggesting the starkness and contrast of the photographic images and the newspapers in which they are published.
from which his editor will pick out five or six
- This line indicates the process of selection by the editor, who chooses a small fraction of the photographs for publication, highlighting the subjective nature of photojournalism and the editorial decisions that shape public perception.
- The flippant reference to ‘five or six’ diminishes these powerful images to snaps that can be dismissed in a quick decision. It underscores the disconnect between the sheer volume of suffering witnessed by the photographer and the limited number of images that are ultimately shared with the public.
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
- “Sunday’s supplement” refers to a newspaper section containing extra features, often published on Sundays. The sibilance of ‘five or six for Sunday’s supplement’ sounds light and throwaway, as if these images are unimportant.
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
- Bathos is used here to go from the highly emotive ‘prick with tears’ to the frivolity of ‘bath and pre-lunch beers’. The anti-climax creates a sense of frustration for the speaker, that these images are glossed over, and the tears don’t last until the end of the day, suggesting that ultimately, the images have very little power.
- The rhyme of ‘tears’ and ‘beers’ adds to the bathos described above, making light of the intensity of the images.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
- The final two lines of the poem sum up the distanced emotion experienced by all involved: the photographer ‘stares impassively’, suggesting that he holds back his emotions as he looks on at the sites of conflict. Or perhaps he stares ‘impassively’ suggesting that he does not care, however, this seems to contrast the trembling hands of the second stanza.
- In this line, the photographer jets off from a site of conflict, highlighting the jarring juxtaposition between the comfort and privilege of some compared to the harsh realities of those who are victims of war and conflict. It serves as a critique of societal apathy and indifference towards distant suffering.
he earns his living and they do not care.
- The reference to ‘earns his living’ suggests the photographer’s financial dependence on his job.
- ‘They’ is a very distanced, removed reference to the wider public who read the news and yet it fails to move them. In this way, the poem critiques the societal indifference towards the suffering depicted in the photographs and the commodification of human tragedy for profit via the sales of newspapers.
Analysis of form and structure
Verse structure
‘War Photographer’ is structured in four sestets (six-line verses). This regular structure reflects the regular, ordered manner in which the photographer develops the photographs. It also echoes the ordered and structured life back home in ‘rural England’.
Rhyme
The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABBCDD, i.e. there are two rhyming couples in each verse, falling on lines two and three, and five and six. The rhyme scheme is not strong or sing-song-like. This is partly because not all of the lines are involved in the rhyme. However, the sounds are also thrown off due to the frequent disruption to the rhythm due to enjambment and caesura which throw off the pauses.
Rhythm
The majority of the lines in the poem are iambic, which means that the pairs of syllables are organised in the order of ‘unstressed then stressed’, with the stressed syllable falling last in the line. In some cases, there are five pairs of syllables making it iambic pentameter. Look for example at the emotive lines at the end of verse two:
to fields/ which don’t/ explode/ beneath/ the feet/
of run/ning child/ren in/ a night/mare heat./
In these lines, the stressed syllable falls at the end of the line, adding intensity to the rhyme of ‘feet’ and ‘heat’.
Some lines in the poem are longer than ten syllables, and not all of the lines are iambic, which creates an unsettling effect, perhaps mimicking the unease of the content of the poem: the unsettling images which confront the reader of a newspaper over their breakfast and coffee.
Themes in 'War Photographer'
Conflict and suffering
The poem vividly portrays the horrors of war and the profound suffering experienced by its victims. Through stark imagery and evocative language, Duffy captures the brutality and devastation of conflict, highlighting its impact on both individuals and the nation.
Moral and ethical responsibility
The poem raises questions about the moral and ethical responsibilities of the war photographer in documenting scenes of suffering and violence. It explores the tension between the photographer’s duty to bear witness to human tragedy and the potential exploitation or commodification of suffering for mass consumption in the media.
Detachment
The theme of isolation and detachment runs throughout the poem, both in the physical setting of the darkroom and in the emotional distance maintained by the photographer. Despite being surrounded by images of suffering, the photographer almost always remains emotionally detached, except for a brief tremble in the darkroom, highlighting the psychological toll of witnessing to human tragedy.
The impact of the media
The poem critiques the role of the media in shaping public perception of conflict and suffering. It highlights the subjective nature of photography and journalism, and the editorial decisions that determine which images are presented to the public. It also raises questions about the voyeurism (looking on at images) of suffering and the ethical implications of turning human tragedy into entertainment.
Quiz
War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy
Test your knowledge of the poem 'War Photographer' by Carol Ann Duffy.
Comprehension Questions
- What is the setting described in the poem, and what is the significance of this setting for the war photographer?
- How does Duffy use language and imagery to depict the war photographer’s emotional state and psychological detachment?
- What is the significance of the line “A hundred agonies in black and white” in relation to the photographer’s work?
- Describe the process by which the editor selects photographs for publication, and discuss the implications of this process.
- How does the poem explore the theme of moral and ethical responsibility in the context of photojournalism?
- What is the effect of the line “The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers” on the reader? How does it contribute to the poem’s message?
- Explain the significance of the locations mentioned in the poem, such as “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.”
- How does the poem address the theme of memory and remembrance, particularly in relation to the photographs taken by the war photographer?
- How does this poem reflect on the big themes of ‘power’ and ‘conflict’? Treat each key word separately, making a bullet point list of ideas along with evidence from the text.
- Which poem from your anthology would you select to pair with ‘War Photographer’ for a ‘compare and contrast’ style essay, and why?
Both War Photographer and Ozymandias explore the theme of the power of art to convey emotion and to outlast the moment. The photographer’s images and the statue both outlast the humans they depict. In addition, both poems reflect on the nature of power, whether desired or not. Ozymandias uses his power to intimidate and control his kingdom, while the war photographer wields a reluctant power in the way his images can sway public perception. The poems are very different in their form and structure, giving students plenty to compare and contrast.
As with Ozymandias, My Last Duchess explores the power of art and the artist to create images which outlast the humans they represent. In My Last Duchess, the power wielded by the Duke is terrifying and dangerous, while in War Photographer, the power of the photographer is reluctant. Both poems explore the theme of emotional detachment. The Duke’s cold and calculating demeanour suggests a lack of emotional connection to his wife, and likewise, the photographer’s detachment from the scenes of suffering he captures is evident, as he remains emotionally distant even in the face of human tragedy.
