war photographer research paper

Three images that show wartime photographs can have greater impact than the written word

Assistant Professor in Modern Languages (Spanish), University of Birmingham

Senior Lecturer in Photography, Teesside University

Disclosure statement

Pippa Oldfield's research has previously been supported by funding from AHRC; The British Academy; Paul Mellon Centre; and Peter Palmquist Memorial Fund, among others.

Lucy O'Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Birmingham provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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This article contains images that some may finding distressing, including of torture.

“Images are worth a thousand words. These images may be worth a million .” US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s response to being shown graphic images of the victims of Hamas’s recent massacre raises an important question about whether photographs are more powerful than words in conveying the brutality of war.

Since the announcement of its invention in 1839 , photography has been imagined as a form of “writing with light” (referring to the meanings of the Greek words phos and graphe from which it is derived).

Writing in the New York Times in 1862, Oliver Wendell Holmes reflected on photographs taken after the Battle of Antietam during the US civil war: “We see the list [of those killed in battle] in the morning paper at breakfast but dismiss its recollection with the coffee.” By contrast, it was as if the photographer had “brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets”.

In a globalised and fast-moving media landscape, photographs are more efficient than words. They can be absorbed in an instant and apparently transcend barriers of language. The notion of photography as a universal language has been around since photography’s origins and, despite criticism, remains powerful .

As the documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado put it: “I can write in photography — and you can read it in China, in Canada, in Brazil, anywhere .”

Photographs have worked alongside words to substantiate written reports on war on the basis that the mechanically produced images provide an objective and neutral record of reality.

Numerous scholars, however, have debunked this and shown how the camera can indeed lie . Wartime photographs can be used for propaganda purposes . Yet, even in the era of digital and AI-enhanced imagery, the idea that photography reveals the truth persists.

Lucy’s research has explored how this perception of photography as evidence was harnessed for propaganda purposes during Mexico’s Cristero War (1926-29) , a struggle which saw Catholics rise up against a series of government policies curbing religious freedoms.

Catholic propagandists disseminated real photographs of slain priests and militants , both in Mexico and abroad, as proof of federal violence. This created narratives of martyrdom that would galvanise support for the rebellion.

The most enduring photograph of this kind is the striking image of the Jesuit priest Miguel Pro who was executed without trial in 1927 on suspicion of attempting to assassinate former president Álvaro Obregón, despite limited evidence.

In his final moments before the firing squad Pro assumed the pose of Christ on the cross, converting his body into a symbol of non-violent Catholic resistance. The publication of the photograph in the mainstream media sparked Catholic outrage around the world in 1927 and continues to circulate today.

Some of the most powerful photographs from wartime have catalysed fierce debate on the justification of conflict. Here are three examples.

1. Liberation of concentration camps (1945)

Journalists have turned to the camera when words seem incapable of describing the most extreme wartime atrocities. This was the experience of US and British reporters covering the Allied liberation of the concentration camps at the end of the second world war.

A New York Times journalist said at the time: “Writers have tried to describe these things, but words cannot describe them .” Photographs offered proof that was “ more difficult to deny than with words ”, according to professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania Barbie Zelizer .

An Israeli government spokesperson said that photographs of the recent October 7 massacre had been released to combat a “ Holocaust denial-like phenomenon ” over the Hamas atrocities.

2. “Napalm Girl” (1972)

Nick Ut’s photograph of nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing after a napalm attack on the village of Trang Bang has been considered “a symbol of the horror of war in general, and of the war in Vietnam in particular” . The image created the myth that the US was responsible when in reality the napalm had been accidentally dropped by South Vietnamese forces.

Although Ut’s photograph did not radically transform US public opinion to the extent often assumed , it became an icon for anti-war sentiment and Ut claimed that it influenced soldiers’ decisions to abandon the war.

3. Abu Ghraib (2004)

Photographs have played a powerful role in exposing war crimes, as in the case of the now infamous images documenting torture against detainees at the US military prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq .

Although written reports of abuses had been circulating for over a year, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed only the images provided a “vivid realisation” of what happened. “Words don’t do it,” , he added.

The most striking photograph, showing the hooded figure of Ali Shallal al-Qaysi with electrical cables attached to his outstretched arms, arguably became the defining image of the “war on terror” . The image significantly damaged public perception of US foreign policy and was appropriated as a symbol of protest around the world .

Read more: 50 years after ‘Napalm Girl,’ myths distort the reality behind a horrific photo of the Vietnam War and exaggerate its impact

These images demonstrate the power of photography not only to provide “evidence” of the realities of war, but also to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Author Susan Sontag famously warned that over-exposure to images of suffering could cause apathy and “compassion fatigue” but, as the photography curator and academic David Campany has shown, it’s not that clear-cut .

Research from 2011 concluded that photographs published in European news publications relating to human experiences of the 2009 Gaza conflict provoked stronger emotional reactions than articles.

In her work on the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, Israeli author and art curator Ariella Azoulay argues that contemplating images of suffering binds us in a “civil contract” with those depicted: it is up to us to respond through meaningful action.

As we navigate the harrowing news coverage of the Middle East conflict , perhaps what is most important is photography’s potential to remind us of our shared humanity.

• Israel-Palestine conflict
• War photography
• Israel-Hamas conflict 2023

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Critic’s Notebook

Has War Changed, or Only War Photography?

In the decades between Robert Capa and Lynsey Addario, our image of battle lost its aura of nobility.

By Arthur Lubow

Lynsey Addario began taking war pictures when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Only two-thirds of a century had elapsed since Robert Capa documented the Spanish Civil War. But to go from the exhibition of Capa’s Spain photos at the International Center of Photography to the Addario show at the SVA Chelsea Gallery is to traverse not just time and geography but a profound shift in sensibility. Capa’s pictures express his belief in war as a conflict between good and evil. In our time, which is to say in Addario’s, unwavering faith in the justice of one side has perished, a casualty of too many brutal, pointless, reciprocally corrupt wars.

Addario over the last two decades has taken her camera to some of the most dangerous places on earth. A MacArthur fellow, she is a freelance photographer who shared a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting awarded to The New York Times in 2009 for its coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Like Capa, she calls herself a photojournalist, not an artist. She has said that she is dedicated to “using images to undo preconceptions and to show a reality often misunderstood or misrepresented.” She has also named Capa as one of her main influences, even though many of the preconceptions she seeks to undermine are those he enshrined.

Capa avoided the gut-wrenching images that prevail in contemporary war photography. His biographer, Richard Whelan, wrote that Capa’s pictures of an American serviceman, Raymond J. Bowman, 21, lying dead from a German sniper’s bullet through the forehead in Leipzig, in mid-April 1945, near the end of the war, were “the most gruesome photographs of Capa’s entire career.” In these photos, the young corporal lies supine, his legs splayed out on the balcony from which he had been firing a machine gun, his head and arm twisted on the wooden floor of the apartment he has been knocked back into. An amoeba-shaped puddle of blood oozes beneath him.

Yet compared to the war photography that came afterward, this image is archaically dignified. “It was a very clean, somehow very beautiful death and I think that’s what I remember most from the war,” Capa said in a radio interview in 1947. When you look at his photograph, you see what he was seeing. With good reason, we don’t see it that way anymore.

Many Americans no longer regard war as a righteous undertaking — and war photography has played a part in changing our perspective. Pictures in Korea (notably those of David Douglas Duncan ) and, even more, those in Vietnam (by Larry Burrows and Don McCullin in particular) stripped warfare of its glamour and romance, zeroing in instead on blood, mud, fatigue, injury and viciousness. Television footage amplified the horror.

With extraordinary fortitude and skill, Addario has shown us the face of war today. Many of her photographs portray its victims, especially women and children: survivors of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a wounded child soldier in South Sudan, a 7-year-old boy struck by shrapnel in Afghanistan, a cargo plane filled with American soldiers on stretchers being evacuated from Iraq. She also depicts the aftermath of natural disasters, as in an extraordinary picture of a woman giving birth by the roadside near Tacloban, the Philippines, in the wake of a devastating typhoon.

There are precious few warm moments, and even those are tinged with irony. When young boys in Pakistan near the Afghan border beam with admiring gazes as a squad of Taliban fighters jump out of a truck, we can see the next generation of jihadists taking form. Another masterfully composed image of a pregnant young woman and her mother seeking medical assistance in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, in November 2009, depicts them in sky-blue burqas against a flawless blue sky. It is a beautiful photograph without a clear message.

Beautiful war photographs may seem like a moral oxymoron. Can something so ugly be depicted with beauty? The hideous content of Addario’s pictures is masterfully composed and lit. Some of the great war photographers of our time (such as James Nachtwey, another of Addario’s avowed influences) have been assailed for making pictures of horrific scenes that are formally pretty. That seems like an odd objection if you believe, as I do, that the mission of art is to impose order and, through that, a kind of beauty on haphazard experience. But perhaps there are some subjects that don’t lend themselves to art, because to organize them aesthetically is to be untrue to their senselessness. Adorno famously said that to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. Tellingly, Capa chose not to photograph the liberation of the concentration camps.

It is because Addario unsparingly depicts the suffering of war that an incongruity arises between the content and the composition. For Capa, a classical format fit his intentions: to portray war’s self-sacrifice, comradeship and other time-honored virtues. His pictures in Spain have acquired a canonical aura. The show at I.C.P. — an organization that Robert’s younger brother, Cornell Capa, founded in 1974 and which holds his archive — explores the creation of a photo book, “Death in the Making,” first published in 1938. By then, Capa had moved on to the fight in China against the Japanese, avoiding the impending defeat of a cause he championed, as well as his personal anguish after the death at the front in July 1937 of his lover, Gerda Taro, who had also been working in Spain as a photojournalist. The great majority of the pictures in “Death in the Making” are by Capa, although some are by Taro or by their friend David Seymour, known as Chim. (The I.C.P. show and an accompanying new edition of the book sort out authorship of the individual images.)

Capa’s most famous picture — one of the most celebrated of all war photographs — depicts a Republican militiaman falling as he is shot. It was the cover image of the book. In recent years, its authenticity has been questioned, and much forensic analysis of the landscape, the soldier’s identity, even the manner of his collapse has attempted, without conclusive results, to determine if it was staged.

Because of the gestural similarity of the outstretched arms, the photograph is sometimes compared to Goya’s painting “The Third of May, 1808,” of a Spanish partisan facing a Bonapartist firing squad. However, despite having been made over a century earlier, the painting, with its heap of mangled corpses and the expressions of horror on the faces of the men about to die, is much more modern. Capa’s austere portrayal of a vanquished hero harkens back to Homer.

Not that the Republican soldiers are presented as godlike. On the contrary, their tattered humanity is what most interested Capa. The book and show proceed with a classical sequence familiar from the “Iliad” — leave-taking, combat, mourning — but the men and women in these pictures are emotionally open, touchingly individual and markedly of their time.

Capa devoted most of his published images to the Republican soldiers (both men and women) off the battlefield: listening to speeches, playing chess, feeding a lamb, embracing. We never forget that we are looking at particular people, each with a life that may soon be truncated. In a poignant picture of grinning young men leaning out of a railroad car and raising clenched fists on their way to the Aragon front, the friezelike composition highlights the specific traits of each soldier.

Unlike the photographers of the fascist-supported Nationalists, who depicted their soldiers either as regimented faceless men or valiant standouts, Capa illustrated the Republican ethos that the militiamen should be informed participants in the war. They are seen listening, learning, conversing. The one anomalous photograph in “Death in the Making” was shot by Taro and appeared on the back cover: a handsome, clean-cut young soldier blowing a bugle, positioned against the sky. He seems to have migrated from the fascist ranks.

How anachronistic Capa’s faith in wartime nobility now feels. It is prelapsarian, imbued with an innocence that we have lost forever. Even in Ukraine, a defensive war against a powerful aggressor that Addario has covered, moral justifications cannot obscure the horror of the casualties on both sides. Some deaths in war are dirtier than others, but none of them are clean.

Death in the Making: Reexamining the Iconic Spanish Civil War Photobook

Through Jan. 9, International Center of Photography, 79 Essex Street, Manhattan. 212-857-000.

The Masters Series: Lynsey Addario

Through Dec. 10, SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, Manhattan. 212-592-2145.

The History of War Photography Report

Introduction, main features of war photography, emergence and development of war photography, use of photographic technique in the period of the most significant wars, war photography at the present stage, theoretical perspectives of the development of war photography, works cited.

War photography is a specific direction of photojournalism, and it can justly be recognized as a rather ambiguous activity. Armed conflicts are the culmination of the most severe and sometimes irresolvable political contradictions. During such events, conditions are created for the manipulation of public consciousness through propaganda that can be quite crude and primitive. Sometimes, war photography is one of the tools that is used for the purpose of propaganda. In addition, because of an increased risk of taking photos under combat conditions, such pictures are highly valued, and the salary of military photojournalists is quite high. In this regard, such work is frequently criticized since moral and ethical aspects are affected in this case. Due to the existence of such delicate aspects, the study of the war photography phenomenon is rather relevant and necessary. The purpose of this report is to identify basic trends in the development of war photography and determine the conceptual, stylistic, and technical changes observed in the course of its formation.

The object of war photography is everything that is connected with the course and dynamics of the armed conflict. It forms the viewer’s perception of the nature of what is happening. In other words, the photo can show both direct combat actions and what relates to them, for example, operations in hospitals. Despite the fact that photojournalists do not take an active part in hostilities, they also face certain danger and quite often experience psychological pressure. Nevertheless, the danger of stress is not as unique as real physical threats are also present. A striking example is the situation of Hilda Clayton, an American military photojournalist who shot military training in Afghanistan and was the victim of an explosion, capturing it at the last moments of her life (see fig. 1). Such a tragedy can happen to those specialists who conduct their work in “hot spots” and expose themselves to an intentional risk.

As it can be seen from the example, the most significant feature of war photography is that specialists are most often work in the epicenter of danger; in this regard, they expose their lives to significant risk on an equal basis with other participants in the events reflected. Moreover, their activities are extremely complicated technically. Photographers have to possess quite much professional equipment and at the same time be mobile in order to move urgently to different points.

Also, war photography is closely associated with various moral and ethical contradictions, which makes the work of photojournalists even more difficult. For example, according to McMaster, a professional approach and the corresponding ethics require the ability to abstract from a particular situation (191). It is essential to remain neutral to everything that happens on the battlefield or nearby and at the same time closely monitor any events. Thus, war photography is the direction of photojournalism, the main features of which relate to the immediate working conditions of the photographer and specific aspects resulting from them, namely stress, a risk to life, and the difficulty of equipment transporting.

After such a phenomenon as photography was invented in the 1830s, the possibility of shooting military events was first considered. The primary goal was to raise public awareness about everything that was happening as photos could help to make a complete impression and

opinion than the newspaper texts or official bulletins. Nevertheless, the technical imperfection of the early photographic equipment made it impossible to recreate the pictures of rapid actions when shooting motion. That is why photographers of that time reflected the course of military operations not fully, shooting such static objects as fortifications, standing soldiers or officers, and territories before and after battles. The first pictures relating to war photography can be considered a number of daguerreotypes that were connected with the events of the American-Mexican war; they were made in 1847, the name of the photographer was not fixed, and their authorship cannot be established (McLaughlin 43). However, some historians believe that one of the first military photographers, whose name is known today, was John McCosh, a surgeon of the British Bengal army (McLaughlin 47). He photographed colleagues, weapons, architecture during the events of the second Anglo-Burmese war (see figure 2).

The importance that the technical development of photographic equipment acquired during the wars of the early twentieth century emphasizes a close relationship between war and photography not only in an exclusively journalistic sense. It can be assumed that during this period, photographic technology received the official status of a military instrument. As Borchard et al. remarks, a technical side of the process is extremely important: in the mid-twenties of the twentieth century, the production of new photographic equipment was established in Germany (78). They were compact cameras with almost perfect optics, especially for that period, and they radically expanded the possibilities of shooting. Thus, photographers were able to shoot certain objects from any angle with different perspective and distortion, and they could do it almost imperceptibly for others under adverse conditions. This technique became widespread on the battlefields and was the prototype of many modern professional cameras.

Due to the development of photography technologies, society could see many events that would have gone unnoticed if it had not been for professional cameras. Many significant moments were discussed mainly due to the activities of photographers who managed to be present in the most important places and record significant events. For example, the Nuremberg trial after the Second World War can also be considered the sphere of activity of war photographers since its defendants were directly related to military crimes (Oldfield and Allbeson 92). Also, numerous scenes during that war helped the whole world to learn about those terrible events that were happening in the battlefields and formed an approximately accurate picture of those actions. The war in Vietnam, as Möller notes, was an era when photography was developed quite well (269). Correspondents of that time actively withdrew hostilities, and many photographs showed tragic events, not hiding the realities of the war (see figure 3). A special technique became more sophisticated than earlier, and specialists did not have to carry such large and heavy equipment as one century before. Due to the improvement of technologies, the development process became more rapid, and the quality of photos noticeably changed for the better. All these innovations made it possible to provide a significant breakthrough in the field of war photography, and the display of all the recorded events became as realistic as possible.

Thus, the popularity and success of such a direction as war photography were hardly disputed by those who witnessed pictures taken by experienced and professional experts. In addition to displaying necessary events and materials that occurred during military conflicts, photographers managed to draw public attention to certain issues and thereby create a resonance around this or that problem. That is why photos directly from battlefields are often considered a rather successful propaganda tool.

Today, various international conventions provide for strict punishment for attacking journalists and photographers. However, as practice shows, they are often targeted by militant groups (McLaughlin 75). Sometimes, it happens to express hatred for photographers’ opponents or prevent the facts that are displayed in specific pictures from being disclosed. When terrorism became a part of armed conflicts, war photography turned into a more dangerous phenomenon as some terrorists started to target journalists and photographers. During the war in Iraq between 2003 and 2009, thirty-six photographers and their colleagues were kidnapped or killed (Luckhurst 359). From a comparison of different branches of photojournalism, it is evident that war photographers most of all risk their lives and mental health. At the same time, the coverage of news from war zones is more prosperous than any other branch of journalism. In wartime, the time of newspaper sales usually increases.

Nevertheless, a few conflicts in the world receive significantly wide attention, and its merit is primarily due to quality images.

In addition to such well-known wars as the conflicts between Israel and Gaza, the war in Iraq and the fight against drug traffickers in Mexico, most civil wars and armed conflicts in developing countries pass unnoticed and are barely covered by the media. The fundamental reason is that the press is often not interested in covering such events because these countries are unfamiliar to the public. Regions are either far away or have no political and economic significance for the developed states of the world. Also, they lack infrastructure, which makes communication more difficult and expensive. Moreover, such conflicts in remote areas are much more dangerous for war correspondents. Therefore, not all military actions are covered in the press.

Embedded Photojournalists

The twenty-first century introduced new risks into the life and professional practice of war photographers and also formed new links between them and the official authorities. In the early 2000s, the notion of embedded journalists first appeared, and war photojournalists were also included in this category. This term refers to correspondents who are attached to military formations participating in armed conflicts. However, as McMaster notes, the practice of embedding journalists, including photographers, to the active forces is often criticized (194). It can be regarded as a part of an advocacy campaign and the desire to divide journalists and civilians in order to make the latter sympathize with the forces that invade. Nevertheless, despite some contradictions related to the profession, it remains relevant and in demand.

Gender Aspect of War Photography

It is rather evident that the analysis of the development of war photography at the present stage cannot bypass such an aspect as gender. The activity of those women-photojournalists who work in the conditions of armed conflicts undoubtedly has its specifics. The analysis of the reasons why women decide to go on dangerous business trips to war zones deserves particular attention. Perhaps, it can be explained by the attempt to be useful to society and carry out important work, as well as the desire to prove that even such a dangerous profession is also suitable for women.

As for the psychological aspect of women’s work as photographers in “hot spots,” it is possible to assume that the experience of any person’s death and the sense of constant tension have a greater influence on them than on more men. One of the key points that deserve discussion is gender discrimination and its possible manifestations. Thus, according to Callister, when working in “hot spots,” women can face two types of discrimination:

harassment by militants and the negative attitudes of civilians (114). However, such cases are purely individual and cannot be regarded as a pattern.

Also, it is likely that after returning home, women will experience more pronounced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder than men. According to Zarzycka, when returning from “hot spots,” some women feel the reluctance to communicate with others, feel depressed, and suffer from alienation to current events. It is quite natural, especially when it is about serious armed conflicts with a large number of victims. Therefore, the profession of a woman-photojournalist is associated with not less risk than a similar male position.

According to the fact that the process of developing technologies in the sphere of creating equipment for professional photography is not standing still, it is likely that new samples of high-quality equipment will regularly appear. Accordingly, war photographers will be able to make even more detailed pictures from their workplaces. Certainly, today, there are quite a few ways to avoid human involvement, for example, the use of quadcopters or any other unmanned aerial vehicles that are capable of taking photos and video at a distance. However, the images made by people are more emotional and vivid since the human factor often plays a significant role.

At the same time, the number of war correspondents can be increased as more and more people are interested in news, and various media platforms continually search for additional resources of high-quality content. The more viewers see this or that reportage, the greater the chances that a public resonance will be formed, which, in its turn, may be beneficial to some representatives of the authorities. In the decision-making process, it is essential to adhere to a maximally objective position and adequately assess all the information that comes from the press. It is important to remember that wars are, first of all, tragic events, and only then places for reporting.

Thus, the history of the formation of war photography has undergone significant changes during the existence of this work. Regular improvement of technologies in this sphere allowed achieving the maximum quality of pictures. Due to many outstanding personalities, the theme of war photography received a rather wide public distribution. A gender aspect can be considered quite relevant when it is such a profession. Prospects for the development of this area largely depend on how quickly technologies will develop and whether people continue to use people as a source of obtaining high-quality photographs.

Borchard, Gregory A., et al. “From Realism to Reality: The Advent of War Photography.” Journalism & Communication Monographs , vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, pp. 66-107.

“British; Royal Artiller at Toungoo, Burma.” CitiesTips , 2017, Web.

Callister, Sandy. The Face of War: New Zealand’s Great War Photography . Auckland University Press, 2013.

CNN Library. “South Vietnamese Forces Follow after Terrified Children after a Napalm Attack on Suspected Viet Cong Hiding.” CNN . 2017, Web.

Fichtl, Marcus. “Hilda Clayton’s Final Moments Before Fatal Blast.” Stars and Stripes , 2017, Web.

Luckhurst, Roger. “Iraq War Body Counts: Reportage, Photography, and Fiction.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies , vol. 63, no. 2, 2017, pp. 355-372.

McLaughlin, Greg. The War Correspondent . 2nd ed., Pluto Press, 2016.

McMaster, Herbert R. “Photography at War.” Survival , vol. 56, no. 2, 2014, pp. 187-198.

Mohammed, Eman. “Why Would a Woman Cover War?” Witness , Medium, 2017, Web.

Möller, Frank. “Witnessing Violence Through Photography.” Global Discourse , vol. 7, no. 2-3, 2017, pp. 264-281.

Oldfield, Pippa, and Tom Allbeson. “The Business of War Photography, from the Second World War to the Cold War.” Journal of War & Culture Studies , vol. 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 91-93.

Zarzycka, Marta. Gendered Tropes in War Photography: Mothers, Mourners, Soldiers . Routledge, 2016.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 1). The History of War Photography. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-war-photography/

"The History of War Photography." IvyPanda , 1 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-war-photography/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'The History of War Photography'. 1 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "The History of War Photography." February 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-war-photography/.

1. IvyPanda . "The History of War Photography." February 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-war-photography/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The History of War Photography." February 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-war-photography/.

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War Photographer Summary & Analysis by Carol Ann Duffy

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"War Photographer" is a poem by Scottish writer Carol Ann Duffy, the United Kingdom's poet laureate from 2009 to 2019. Originally published in 1985, "War Photographer" depicts the experiences of a photographer who returns home to England to develop the hundreds of photos he has taken in an unspecified war zone. The photographer wrestles with the trauma of what he has seen and his bitterness that the people who view his images are unable to empathize fully with the victims of catastrophic violence abroad. The poem references a number of major historical air strikes and clearly draws imagery from Nick Ut's famous Vietnam War photograph of children fleeing the devastation of a napalm bomb.

• Read the full text of “War Photographer”

The Full Text of “War Photographer”

“war photographer” summary, “war photographer” themes.

Apathy, Empathy, and the Horrors of War

Lines 13-15, lines 15-18.

• Lines 19-24

Trauma and Memory

Lines 11-12.

• Lines 13-18

The Ethics of Documenting War

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “war photographer”.

In his dark ... ... in ordered rows.

The only light ... ... intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom ... flesh is grass.

He has a ... ... seem to now.

Rural England. Home ... ... weather can dispel,

to fields which ... ... a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. ... ... a half-formed ghost.

He remembers the ... ... into foreign dust.

Lines 19-21

A hundred agonies ... ... for Sunday’s supplement.

Lines 21-22

The reader’s eyeballs ... ... and pre-lunch beers.

Lines 23-24

From the aeroplane ... ... do not care.

“War Photographer” Symbols

Photographs

• Line 2: “with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
• Line 7: “Solutions slop in trays”
• Lines 13-15: “A stranger’s features / faintly start to twist before his eyes, / a half-formed ghost”
• Line 19: “A hundred agonies in black and white”

“War Photographer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

• Line 2: “s,” “s,” “s”
• Line 4: “th,” “th”
• Line 5: “pr,” “pr”
• Line 6: “B,” “B,” “P,” “P”
• Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “s”
• Line 8: “h,” “h,” “th”
• Line 9: “th”
• Line 13: “S,” “s,” “t,” “f”
• Line 14: “f,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “t”
• Line 16: “h,” “h”
• Line 17: “w,” “w,” “w”
• Line 20: “s”
• Line 21: “S,” “s”
• Line 22: “b,” “b,” “b”
• Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.”
• Lines 11-12: “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet / of running children in a nightmare heat.”
• Line 6: “All flesh is grass.”
• Line 1: “I,” “i”
• Line 2: “o”
• Line 3: “o,” “o”
• Line 4: “ou,” “e,” “u,” “e”
• Line 5: “ie,” “a”
• Line 6: “e,” “a,” “e,” “e,” “a”
• Line 8: “i,” “i,” “i,” “e,” “e”
• Line 10: “i,” “i,” “ea,” “e”
• Line 11: “ie,” “o,” “o,” “ea,” “ee”
• Line 13: “i,” “i,” “i,” “a,” “e,” “u”
• Line 14: “ai”
• Line 15: “ie”
• Line 16: “i”
• Line 17: “o,” “o,” “a,” “o,” “o,” “u”
• Line 18: “oo,” “u”
• Line 19: “a,” “a,” “a”
• Line 20: “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i”
• Line 21: “u,” “u,” “i”
• Line 22: “i,” “ea,” “ee,” “e,” “ee”
• Line 23: “a,” “a,” “a,” “e”
• Line 24: “i,” “i”
• Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All”
• Line 7: “do. Solutions”
• Line 8: “hands, which”
• Line 9: “now. Rural England. Home”
• Line 13: “happening. A”
• Line 15: “ghost. He”
• Line 16: “wife, how”
• Line 21: “supplement. The”
• Line 1: “r,” “r,” “n,” “ll,” “l,” “n”
• Line 2: “s,” “l,” “s,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “r,” “d,” “r,” “d,” “r”
• Line 3: “l,” “l,” “l,” “l”
• Line 5: “pr,” “pr,” “p,” “r,” “t,” “t,” “ss”
• Line 6: “B,” “s,” “t,” “B,” “t,” “P,” “n,” “P,” “n,” “ll,” “l”
• Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “l,” “sl”
• Line 8: “h,” “s,” “h,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “th”
• Line 9: “th,” “R,” “r,” “g,” “g,” “n”
• Line 10: “n,” “p,” “n,” “w,” “p,” “l,” “w,” “d,” “p,” “l”
• Line 11: “l,” “d,” “d,” “pl,” “d,” “th,” “th”
• Line 12: “n,” “n”
• Line 13: “S,” “str,” “r,” “s,” “t,” “r,” “s”
• Line 14: “f,” “t,” “st,” “t,” “t,” “t,” “st”
• Line 15: “f,” “f”
• Line 16: “w,” “h,” “w,” “h”
• Line 17: “w,” “w,” “d,” “d,” “w,” “eo”
• Line 18: “d,” “st,” “d,” “d,” “st”
• Line 21: “S,” “s,” “s,” “s,” “r”
• Line 22: “t,” “rs,” “b,” “tw,” “th,” “b,” “th,” “r,” “b,” “rs”
• Line 23: “s,” “r,” “ss,” “r”
• Line 24: “r,” “s,” “s”

End-Stopped Line

• Line 2: “rows.”
• Line 3: “glows,”
• Line 5: “Mass.”
• Line 6: “grass.”
• Line 10: “dispel,”
• Line 12: “heat.”
• Line 14: “eyes,”
• Line 18: “dust.”
• Line 22: “beers.”
• Line 24: “care.”
• Lines 1-2: “alone / with”
• Lines 4-5: “he / a”
• Lines 7-8: “trays / beneath”
• Lines 8-9: “then / though”
• Lines 9-10: “again / to”
• Lines 11-12: “feet / of”
• Lines 13-14: “features / faintly”
• Lines 15-16: “cries / of”
• Lines 16-17: “approval / without”
• Lines 17-18: “must / and”
• Lines 19-20: “white / from”
• Lines 20-21: “six / for”
• Lines 21-22: “prick / with”
• Lines 23-24: “where / he”
• Line 2: “spools of suffering”
• Line 6: “All flesh is grass”

Parallelism

• Lines 10-11: “to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, / to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet”
• Lines 16-18: “how he sought approval / without words to do what someone must / and how the blood stained into foreign dust.”
• Lines 4-5: “as though this were a church and he / a priest preparing to intone a Mass.”

“War Photographer” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• "All flesh is grass"
• Sunday's supplement
• Impassively
• (Location in poem: Line 1: “dark room”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “War Photographer”

Rhyme scheme, “war photographer” speaker, “war photographer” setting, literary and historical context of “war photographer”, more “war photographer” resources, external resources.

"War Photographer" Read Aloud — Listen to the poem read aloud.

Trailer for the Documentary "War Photographer" — Watch the trailer for the 2011 documentary War Photographer, which explores the responsibilities of photographers in war zones, focusing on photographer James Nachtwey.

"The Terror of War" — Explore Nick Ut's image from the Vietnam War, "The Terror of War." This famous photograph may have inspired "War Photographer." Note the second photographer at the right of the image examining his camera as children run by him, burnt and naked.

Carol Ann Duffy Biography — Learn more about Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's first female Poet Laureate, on Poets.org.

Interview with War Photographer Nick Ut — Watch this NBC interview with Vietnam War photographer Nick Ut about taking his famous photo depicting the naked "Napalm Girl" and the responsibility of photographers in war zones. Ut's comments intersect potently with the themes explored in "War Photographer."

LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

A Child's Sleep

Anne Hathaway

Before You Were Mine

Death of a Teacher

Education For Leisure

Elvis's Twin Sister

Head of English

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

In Your Mind

Little Red Cap

Mrs Lazarus

Mrs Sisyphus

Pilate's Wife

Pygmalion's Bride

Queen Herod

Recognition

Standing Female Nude

The Darling Letters

The Dolphins

The Good Teachers

Warming Her Pearls

We Remember Your Childhood Well

Everything you need for every book you read.

War Photographer: Form and Structure

Overview of “war photographer” form and structure.

• “War Photographer” is composed in four stanzas , each containing six lines . This consistent, rhythmic structure ties in with the meticulous nature of the war photographer’s work.
• The poem employs rhymed couplets , which brings a sense of order to the chaotic and brutal reality of war - reflecting the photographer’s attempt to provide structure and meaning through his photographs.
• The structure lets the poem progress from the darkroom, to the photographer’s memories, to the newspaper editor’s office, to the reader’s breakfast table, subtly revealing the journey these photographs take and the impact they have.

Analysis of Form in “War Photographer”

• The use of first person narration allows readers to closely associate with the photographer’s experiences, permitting a deeper understanding of his feelings.
• Free verse is employed, giving the poet freedom to bring forth the irregularities and harsh realities of the war.
• The poem follows a cyclical structure , starting and ending in the darkroom. This serves to highlight that despite the horrors captured and displayed, the cycle of war and suffering continues unabated.

Analysis of Structure in “War Photographer”

• The separation of the poem into four distinct sections could mirror the compartments in the photographer’s camera, each carrying a distinct, yet interconnected image and narrative.
• Each stanza transitions from the personal to the public domain , serving to illustrate the vast gap in understanding and empathising with the atrocities of war.
• The commas used provide a paused, reflective pace that mirrors the careful, deliberate process of developing photos, which also offers the speaker a chance to meditate on each scene he’s captured.

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War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy – Analysis of Poem

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