War Photographer

1
War Photographer Carol Ann Duffy
2
Where does it go?

• The text is part of the sequence on PLACE
• The group consists of
• War Photographer
• Once Upon A Time
• Telephone Conversation

3
Think

• How must it feel to be a war photographer?
• Look at this image from the Vietnam War. How did
  the photographer feel?

4
Stanza One

• In his darkroom he is finally alonewith spools
  of suffering set out in ordered rows.The only
  light is red and softly glows,as though this
  were a church and hea priest preparing to intone
  a Mass.Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is
  grass.
• Why is the photographer compared to a priest?
• What is the confusing last line all about?
• What does the list in the last line mean?

5
Explaining Stanza One

• Perhaps the idea is that in the darkroom, as in
  the confessional some secrets will be revealed.
• Duffy might be suggesting that some deeper truth
  or holiness is attached to his job.
• The list is of war zones notice their
  alliteration that links them together.
• The quote is biblical All flesh is grassbut
  the word of the Lord will last forever. What
  does the speaker think will last forever?

6
Stanza Two

• He has a job to do. Solutions slop in
  traysbeneath his hands which did not tremble
  thenthough seem to now. Rural England. Home
  againto ordinary pain which simple weather can
  dispel,to fields which don't explode beneath the
  feetof running children in a nightmare heat.
• The hands of the photographer tremblewhy?
• Notice that there is significant juxtaposition
  being used here. This is a poetic technique
  where things that are different are placed next
  to each other we can compare them.
• What is being juxtaposed here?

7
Explaining Stanza Two

• The onomatopoeia of the first lines suggests
  perhaps the spilling of something Blood? Guts?
• Look at the number of full stops. Count them.
  The effect of these is take snapshots of moments
  a bit like the shots the photographer takes.
• Notice that the sense of place is developing
  here just like his photos do.

8
Stanza 3

• Something is happening. A stranger's
  featuresfaintly start to twist before his
  eyes,a half-formed ghost. He remembers the
  criesof this man's wife, how he sought
  approvalwithout words to do what someone
  mustand how the blood stained into foreign dust.
  
• As the image develops in the photograph it also
  develops in his mind.
• What kind of scene is he remembering?
• What kind of viewpoints are being used here?

9
Explaining Stanza 3

• Notice that the first line is incredibly short
  again. Does this suggest another snapshot?
• The location of something happening suggests
  many options. Is it in his mind? The darkroom?
  In the past? On foreign soil? The poem lets us
  choose or entertains all options.
• Why must he take photos? Is it for selfish or
  selfless reasons? Notice the use of the
  imperative here.
• Notice the phrase foreign dust ends the stanza
  compare that to the ending of the next stanza.

10
Stanza 4

• A hundred agonies in black-and-whitefrom which
  his editor will pick out five or sixfor Sunday's
  supplement. The reader's eyeballs prickwith
  tears between bath and pre-lunch beers.From
  aeroplane he stares impassively at wherehe earns
  a living and they do not care.
• What is happening to the photographs being
  developed?
• Why does Duffy use the word impassively?
• Who is it that doesnt care?

11
Explaining Stanza 4

• Notice that weve returned to the lexis
  (vocabulary) of the church think of the
  agonies of Christ.
• There are also a mix of wet images to create
  contrast between England and war zones. There
  blood is leaking while in England it is less
  threatening tears.
• Duffy also extends the metaphor by the use bath
  and beer. Each wet image becomes successively
  less frightening.
• The they of England contrasts the collective
  with the isolated him of the opening.