Duffy shows the photographers profession by listing several places:
“Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.”
These are all places with some type of war and conflict. Duffy could also be suggesting that these are the places that the photographer has recently visited and he is putting all the photographs in order. In this poem there are two contrasting worlds: the dangerous war zones and “rural England”. This creates a powerful and stark disparity between the places the writer has experienced and his home in England.
The poet emphasises how deeply the events he sees abroad affects him in the second stanza:
“beneath his hands which did not tremble then”
The traumatic scenes of suffering and violence he sees in the countries he visits do not affect him at the time, perhaps this is because of the chaos at the moment in time, but affect him greatly later on when he has returned home. This gives us insight into his work and shows us how occupying it can be. His experiences certainly have not been pleasant ones and this has had a mentally scarring effect on him.
Later on in the poem we are given an image of the suffering which he sees and photographs:
“...beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat”
This sentence shows the gruesome reality of war countries and portrays the horrific images which the photographer sees. The children are innocent victims of the war and this reminds us of the terror inflicted on average citizens in a country with war. Perhaps Duffy was referring to the famous photograph “From the Killing Field” depicting naked children running from a bomb explosion in the Vietnam War in this sentence. The intense emotional scarring that the photographer has after seeing these horrifying scenes in real life is clear here.
In the third stanza the photographs are developing and we get an insight into the events depicted in the photos:
“A stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes”
The word “strangers” shows the anonymity of the people depicted in the photographs. The fact that the people are not named makes the photos less personal and less harsh. The image starts to “Twist before his eyes” and literally the photos are developing but metaphorically he is remembering the scenes which he has captured. The violent memories are re-surfacing in his mind and this, again, refers to the fact that these scenes will be with him for the rest of his life and shows how he unable to forget the events and his experience abroad has affected him deeply.
The next part of the stanza portrays reality of his experience and how it is permanent:
“how the blood stained into foreign dust”
Here, Duffy could be referring to the ink of the photograph solutions and how they are permanently etched into the paper just as the dreadful images are permanent in his mind. The word “foreign” could also show how these countries are not able to get rid of the fighting.
In the final stanza the poet shows how ignorant and shallow the public in the developed world can be. Even though the photographer thinks the war is of great importance it is only used for filling up space in the newspaper:
“Pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement”
The editor only picks out “five or six” showing how many of the individual “hundred agonies” are discarded. There is a great contrast between the photographer’s views and the general public’s views here as it is clear that although the photographer thinks that the photos are all highly significant, only a few will actually be used. The war is one of the main events taking place in this world yet this article is only a “supplement”. The experience has clearly changed the photographer and his views and it is clear how he disregards the British public for being shallow.
This idea is further highlighted when the poet shows the newspaper readers reaction to the article:
“Prick with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers”
There is a contrast between the limited and shallow emotion of the readers and the cries and agony of the man’s wife. This shows that these photographs are actually very intrusive as they interfere in a very personal and emotional scene for the man’s wife whereas for the readers it is just an article in a newspaper. The phrase “between bath and pre-lunch beers” also emphasises that the people are just reading this article to pass time and have no real feeling or genuine sympathy towards these people. The people reading the paper simply gain a voyeuristic pleasure from seeing these articles and images; this reinforces the superficial thoughts of the public and how the photographer sees this as very shallow.
In my view it is clear that the photographers experience in his profession has changed his views on many things and overall it has changed him as a person. The idea of superficiality in the western world comes across strongly in this poem which, in turn, is what makes it so important in today's society.
Words 1086
