Nightmares On Film: War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy
Nightmares On Film: War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy
Nightmares On Film: War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy
on Film
War Photographer
By carol Ann Duffy
War Photography, in general.
The photos we see in Sunday supplements, adorning posters or headlines,
are taken by real people. These people place their lives in danger, to help
us visualise the horrors of war elsewhere; wars not on our doorstep.
W. Eugene Smith said :
“My beliefs, my camera, and some film. These were the weapons of my
good intentions. My camera, my intentions, stopped no man from
falling, nor did they aid him after he had fallen. It could be said that
"photographs be damned, for they bind no wounds." Yet, I reasoned, if
my photographs could cause compassionate horror in the viewer, they
might also prod the conscience in the viewer into taking action…
...and each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation
hurled with the hope that the pictures might survive through the years,
with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the
future -- causing them caution and remembrance and realization.
Know that these people of the pictures were my family - no matter how
often they reflected the tortured features of another race. Accident of
birth, accident of place -- the bloody, dying child I held momentarily
while the life -- fluid seeped through my shirt and burned my heart --
that child was my child.”
The “Compassionate Horror” of War
Photography.
As Eugene Smith so beautifully says, his
goal was to instil in the viewer of his war
photographs, a "compassionate horror."
If that’s what he wishes to do to the audience
– what effect may the constant horror and
terrors of war have on the photographer?
Not for the faint-hearted.
War photography: propaganda,
outrage and empathy…
War photographers over the entire world “have taken extreme risks to
bring back images that are becoming harder and harder to take, either
because most armies and governments want to control their images, do
not want their PR to be compromised by the "wrong". picture, and
sometimes go as far as to give orders to "shoot the messengers" or
"embed" them; or when, as illustrated in Lebanon (Beirut), Chechnya,
Croatia, or Kosovo, the situation is so volatile and unpredictable that
every second can reverberate and end with a sniper's indiscriminate
shot. These extreme experiences trigger primitive instincts as well as
deep reflections on the definition of war, photography, and human
nature. No one came back intact. Still, pressing the shutter release is
probably the last wall these men and women have built against
helplessness and cynicism, their answer to the apathy that "modern"
consumerism usually pours out of the TV screens of the "civilized"
world.”
Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer.
by Chalifour, Bruno.
What kind of person…
Will go somewhere dangerous and life-
threatening, knowing they might die?
Will purposefully do a job that could kill
them?
Is a war photographer?
“War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy
The poem comes from Duffy’s friendship with Don McCullin
and Philip Jones Griffiths, two well-respected stills
photographers who specialised in war photography. Duffy
is fascinated by what makes someone do such a job and
how they feel about being in situations where a choice
often has to be made between recording horrific events,
and helping.
“War Photographer” the poem
The Basic Facts:
- Who is the poem about?
- What happens in the poem?
- Where is it set?
- When is it set?
- Why do you think Carol Ann Duffy wrote
the poem?
Vocabulary
What do these words “All flesh is grass.”
mean? http://www.biblegateway.
- Spools com/passage/?search
- Darkroom =Isaiah%2040:6;&vers
- Mass
ion=9;
- Rural
- Approval
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/All_Flesh_Is_Grass
- Impassively
Stanza One
In your pairs discuss and note down your ideas on these points:
- What person is the poem written in?
- Is the person narrating the poem the poet?
- Is it about the poet herself?
“he is finally alone” – Why is he only now alone? What does this imply about before
the poem?
“spools of suffering” – Discuss the techniques in this line. Why is it used?
“ordered rows” – What else comes in ordered rows? Why might he set them out so
orderly?
“light is red” – Why is this? Where else do you have red light? What does this make
you think of? Connotations?
What does the concept of the “priest preparing to intone a Mass” add to the idea of the
photographer and how serious he takes his job?
Why is the quote from Isaiah included in the poem? And why with the list of places?
Stanza One and onwards
Form: If you’re unsure, do this in pencil…
How many lines are in each stanza?
Can you work out how many syllables are in each line?
Can you work out the rhyme scheme on your poem?
Try and remember what the last two line of each stanza are
called?
Why would Duffy use such strict control in her poem?
Don’t just give an opinion – how can you prove this from the poem?
Think Evaluation!
On the next slide is a table, copy and complete with lines from the
poem that you believe show effective contrast in the poem.
Contrast continued…
War Zones: England:
“Fields… explode “Ordinary pain which
beneath the feet/ of simple weather can
running children in a dispel”
nightmare heat
Stanza Three
In your pairs discuss and note down your ideas on these points:
What process is happening at the start of Stanza 3? What does
this start for the photographer?
“Something is happening”. What does this sentence do to the
stanza, as a start?
Find the metaphor and analyse it.
Why does he “seek approval/ without words”?
What moral predicament is the photographer in, in stanza
three?
“the blood stained into foreign dust” – what effect does “stained”
have as a verb? Analyse the idea of the atrocity staining…
Why does the photographer feel he must do “what someone
must”?
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in
fascination, the kind of people they ignore at
home.” - Dagobert D. Runes
Attitude: Duffy’s and the photographer.
Having read the entire poem by now, and analysed more
than half… can you prove your opinions?
Remember connotations are powerful allies.