´War Photographer' by Carol Ann Duffy.

By Carol Ann Duffy

'War Photographer'

Let's watch the following video

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.

Let's watch this video and understand the context of the poem

1. These are some of the themes the poem deals with:

1. War 2. Human suffering 3. Trauma and memory 4. The ethics of documenting war 5. Human reaction to victims of war In pairs find verses that illustrate the above themes Links between 'Standing Female Nude' and 'War Photographer' What links can you see between these two poems? Consider: A) Content B) Stylistics

The Documentary Channel (2001) War Photographer Skinner, L (2018) War Photograpaher Context.

Cecilia Vidal García

Duffy, C. (1985). Standing Female Nude. London, England., Pan Macmillan

References

Thank you!