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N5‘War Photographer’ Study Pack

Those photographs are in the background but I'm more interested in the photographer... in the dilemma of someone who has that as a job... to go to these places and come back with the images.

- Carol Ann DuffyContents

1. ‘War Photographer’ text2. Overview & Annotation Tasks3. Textual Analysis4. Critical Essay Questions5-8 Gallery9 In His Own Words

War Photographer

In his darkroom 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 bath and pre-lunch beers.

From aeroplane he stares impassively at where

he earns a living and they do not care.

Carol Ann Duffy

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Task 1 – Overview

Answer the following questions about the poem

o What happens in the poem? (events)

o What is the poem about? (themes)

Task 2 – Annotation

Annotate your A3 copy of the poem, highlighting examples of the following (and any

other relevant) techniques

o Word choice

o Imagery

o Sentence structure

o Alliteration

Add as much analysis to your annotations as you can (and remember to continually

add to this as you learn more about the poem)

o Think about the effects of the various techniques that you have found, especially in

relation to the poem’s themes

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Task 3 – Textual Analysis

1. What is the effect of the word “finally” in line 1? (2)

2. What does the religious imagery in stanza 1 suggest about the photographer and his work? (4)

3. What is the significance of the place-names in line 6? Comment on two literary techniques. (4)

4. Explain what is meant by the image: “All flesh is grass”. (Line 6) (2)

5. Quote the word in stanza 2 that suggests the writer is emotional when developing his

photographs. (1)

6. Why is the phrase “running children in a nightmare heat” effective? (2)

7. Why is the word “ghost” used in line 15? (2)

8. Comment fully on the phrase: “the blood stained into foreign dust.” (3)

9. Comment on the use of contrast in stanza 4. (2)

10. What is the attitude of the reader (stanza 4 line 3) to the photographs? Give evidence for your

answer. (2)

11. What is the tone of the ending of the poem? Give evidence for your answer. (2)

12. Do you feel that the poet approves or disapproves of the war photographer’s job? Refer

closely to the text in your answer. (4)

Total 30 marks

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Critical Essay Questions

The questions below are taken from Intermediate 2 past papers or National 5 specimen papers and show you the type of questions that are suitable for ‘War Photographer’

You should be able to prepare an essay plan for each of these questions

1. Choose a poem which describes a person’s experience.

Explain how the poetic techniques used to describe the experience make the poem more

interesting.

2. Choose a poem which arouses strong emotion in you.

Describe how you feel about the poem, and explain how the poet leads you to feel this way.

3. Choose a poem which deals with an important issue such as war, crime, poverty or racism.

Explain how the poet deepens your understanding of the issue by the choice of content and

the skilful use of poetic techniques.

4. Choose a poem which could be considered as having a powerful message.

Show how the poet effectively conveys this message through his or her use of poetic

techniques.

5. Choose a poem in which the poet creates a particular mood or atmosphere.

Show how the poet creates this mood or atmosphere by his or her choice of subject matter

and use of poetic techniques.

6. Choose a poem which portrays an interesting character.

Show how the poet uses poetic techniques to make the character interesting.

7. Choose a poem which made a lasting impression on you.

Explain briefly what the poem is about, then, by referring to appropriate techniques, show

how the poem has made this lasting impression.

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Gallery

Included here is a selection of Don McCullin’s photographs from the places mentioned or alluded to in the poem. If you want to see more of McCullin’s work a book presenting a range of photographs from across his life and career is available upon request.

Turkish woman returning home and discovering the body of her new husband, killed with his brother and father –

Cyprus, 1964

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Turkish woman mourning the death of her husband – Cyprus, 1964

British soldiers charge up a street as a horrified woman looks on from her doorway – Northern Ireland, 1971

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Young Christians celebrating by the body of a teenage Palestinian girl – Beirut, 1976

Inhabitants of a shelled mental hospital being moved – Beirut,1982

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Two dead Khmer Rouge, one with a foot possibly missing as a result of a landmine – Cambodia, 1970

Inside an overflowing hospital – Phnom Penh, 1975

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In His Own Words

On his darkroom: "Even my darkroom is a haunted place."

On doing the job: "I have been constantly accused of taking terrible pictures and people saying,

did you ever help anyone? Of course I did, but I don't want to brag about it."

On helping a woman in Cyrprus: "I scooped this old lady up in my arms. It was like scooping up

some rag doll that had fallen out of a child's pram. I just ran and ran with her. I don't know why I

did it, but I didn't really want to see that old lady get shot down and killed."

He is tormented by the memory "that haunts me to this day" of a starving child among hundreds

he encountered in Biafra in 1969: "He was an albino boy and he was standing looking at me,

barely managing to stand on his spindly legs... he was making me feel so ashamed."

On what he saw in Beirut: "it was murder from the word go... everywhere I went that day I could

see another person being murdered in front of me".

In 1982, during an assignment to war-torn Beirut, "a day of reckoning" came when he visited an

abandoned hospital with children "tied to the beds, covered in flies... lying in buckets of their own

filth, starving hungry, dying of thirst". He was then taken to a room where “blind and insane”

children were kept – when the door was opened they came flooding out "in their own filth and

mess... like blind rats... I don't think I was ever more ashamed of humanity".

"I don't think I could have touched on more tragedy under one roof than I saw in that hospital that

day... I've never forgotten it."

On his memories of what he has experienced: The past returns "on a regular basis, as fresh as if it

was happening today, to haunt me".

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