The Full Text of “War Photographer”
The Full Text of “War Photographer”
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“War Photographer” Introduction
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"War Photographer" is a free verse poem published by British writer Carole Satyamurti in 1987. The poem's speaker, the photographer of the title, reflects on how the unnatural "frame" a photograph imposes on the world can distort the truth and make people complacent about others' suffering. Illustrating this idea, the speaker describes a photograph they took of a little girl carrying a baby in a war zone; the photo's caption presents the girl as an inspiring symbol of the power of the "human spirit," but the speaker knows that she dropped the baby in terror when a bomb went off right after the picture was taken. The image, then, provides the public with a comforting but false narrative that doesn't reflect war's horrible reality.
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“War Photographer” Summary
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The speaker, a war photographer, reflects that a photograph's frame is comforting because it allows viewers to bend their interpretation of an image. For example, when the speaker takes pictures of things that are deeply sad or utterly ridiculous, viewers can reassure themselves that life goes on as usual beyond the frame. Alternatively, if a photograph is of something heart-warming, that frame projects a sense of reality onto the image it contains, convincing viewers that the image is a true representation of life.
The speaker compares two of their photographs to illustrate these points. The first is of two pink-skinned girls frolicking on the grass in the sunshine in Ascot, a town in England, their laughter rising like the bubbles in champagne.
The next picture is of a little girl in an unnamed war-town region struggling to carry a baby down a street that's been destroyed by the violence. The girl had noticed the speaker watching her right before the speaker took her photo.
Right after this, the first of what would be multiple bombs that day exploded near the girl, breaking the pavement stones into pieces. Driven by her basic instinct to survive, the girl dropped the baby, let out a scream that was too disturbing to have come from a small child, and ran for her life.
But the photograph that the speaker took just depicts a young mother nearly smiling for the camera. The gallery or newspaper displaying the photo later added a hopeful caption about the power of the human spirit to persevere even in hellish places. Yet the speaker argues that such places don't neatly fit into a photograph's frame. Their borders, along with those of more peaceful places, are messy and random, much like those created by blood dripping down a wall.
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“War Photographer” Themes
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The Limits of Media
The speaker of "War Photographer" muses on the public perception of one of their photographs, which depicts a young girl carrying a baby in a war zone. The newspaper or gallery displaying the photo has added a caption that presents the image of courage in the face of horror. In reality, the moment directly following the shot was one of more death and devastation: a bomb landed, terrifying the just-photographed girl into dropping the baby. In pointing out this contrast between the interpretation of the image and what really happened, the speaker highlights the limits of photography and, perhaps, of media in general. Photography doesn't tell the whole story, the poem implies, and can in fact be twisted to reinforce whatever narrative makes viewers comfortable.
The speaker describes how photography, despite appearing like factual documentation, can actually skew the truth. A picture frame can be "reassuring," lending an air of authority to happy images and convincing the viewer that such joy is "how things are." That is, the photograph feels like a fact simply by virtue of being a photograph. In more harrowing photographs, however, the frame separates the image from both the viewers and reality itself. The viewer can remind themselves that life is altogether different outside of the image's borders—or, at least, that it is for them.
Photography, the speaker argues, creates boundaries that don't exist in real life by plucking images from their surrounding context. This is, in part, how the speaker's picture of the girl with the baby gets so misconstrued. The gallery or newspaper in which this photograph appears has added an inspiring caption—"Even in hell the human spirit triumphs over all"—that conveniently omits the tragedy that happened just outside the frame (again, a bomb landed near the girl, and, terrified, she dropped the baby and ran for her life). The juxtaposition between the picture's horrible reality and its caption underscores the way in which the outside world co-opts the girl's story. The caption paints her as a noble hero rather than a human being trying to survive in brutal circumstances; as a symbol of courage rather than a girl like any other, who acted on instinctual fear when faced with danger.
The speaker pushes back against the caption's attempt to lend the photo a clean, comfortable narrative by claiming that "hell, like heaven, is untidy." The boundaries of both heaven and hell are "arbitrary," or random, the speaker concludes, and thus do not lend themselves to the kinds of simple interpretations or framings that the media demands. In this way, the poem might subtly push readers to consider the morality or purpose of war photography in the first place; the speaker has introduced the girl to a wider audience while also distorting her story.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-8
- Lines 16-28
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Complacency and Indifference to Suffering
"War Photographer" illustrates the human tendency to turn away from suffering. In the poem, a gallery displays a photograph of a girl in a war-torn region and captions the picture, "Even in hell the human spirit triumphs over all." This label romanticizes the girl's story, emphasizing her courage while downplaying the horrors of her situation. The photograph's viewers choose to think of the picture's subject as a hero rather than a victim, the poem implies, because it allows them to distance themselves from the reality of the girl's life—and to avoid having to consider what their own responsibility to the girl and others like her may be. In critiquing the public framing of the photograph, the poem suggests that people often see only what they want to see, choosing to preserve their sense of comfort over having to struggle with uncomfortable truths.
The poem suggests that people who are safe from the violence of war often struggle to understand the full scope of its horrors. The uplifting caption added to the speaker's photo suggests that viewers are more interested in receiving "reassurance" than a true representation of what is happening. That is, it's more comfortable to imagine the girl as a symbol of "triumph" over adversity than as someone simply trying to survive the "hell" of war.
By revealing the picture's full context (that a bomb went off not long after the photo was taken and the girl dropped the baby she was carrying), the poem emphasizes just how distant the caption is from the reality of the situation—and thus how little the viewers truly care to understand about the girl and her circumstances. The "frame" of photography is reassuring, the poem argues, because it separates viewers from the horror the girl faces, allowing them to convince themselves that the world outside the image—their world—goes on "normally."
The speaker also contrasts the warzone photograph with one of two girls giggling in the sunshine in Britain. Viewers want to believe that this image of fun and frivolity "is how things are," the speaker says, again implying that people do not want their peace to be interrupted; they bend images to suit their preconceived notions about the world. Yet the speaker refers to hell's boundaries as "arbitrary," suggesting that these viewers who imagine themselves to be safely cushioned from violence are naive; no one can be certain of where or when tragedy may fall. In critiquing the photograph's viewers, the poem also pushes against the idea of art as something that inherently makes people more empathetic. It suggests that a viewer has to be willing to sit with uncomfortable subjects if they wish to learn something from the art with which they engage.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-28
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The Random Cruelty and Horror of War
The speaker of "War Photographer" describes a tragic and disturbing scene from a conflict zone in order to illustrate the horrific trauma of war. The speaker captures a picture of a young girl carrying a baby through a "devastated street" where, moments later, a bomb goes off; frightened, the girl drops the baby and runs away screaming. In telling this story, the poem suggests that war robs children of their innocence, and, more broadly, steals people's joy and hope for a normal life.
The scene the speaker describes coming across while working as a war photographer is deeply disturbing. For one thing, the speaker casually says that the bomb was only the "first bomb of the morning," highlighting the relentless danger and devastation that people living in war zones are forced to endure.
The poem also emphasizes both the girl's terror and her innocence. The speaker says that the girl acts on "instinct"—shocked by the bomb, her automatic response is to let go of her "burden" (the baby) and run for her life. She is not cruel or uncaring; she's simply a young child acting out of fear and confusion, trying her best to survive. The fact that a very young girl was tasked with watching over a baby in the first place, with no adult to turn to for help, adds to the horror of the situation. It suggests that this girl was sexually violated, thrust into adulthood too soon, or perhaps lost her own parents in the conflict and was forced to take on a maternal role for a sibling.
Whatever the case, it's clear the girl and the baby have no one to care for or protect them. In saying that her "mouth [was] too small for her dark scream," the speaker conveys that the girl experienced something that no child should go through; no child should be able to emit a sound containing such pain and terror.
The sharp contrast between this scene and the scene in the other photograph that the speaker describes, which shows a group of girls joyfully relaxing on the grass, further highlights the injustice and randomness of war. The girls in the second photograph are in Ascot, a town in England, lounging and giggling in the sun. The speaker points out how "arbitrary" it is that some people are allowed to live normal, happy lives while others have to live through unimaginable suffering—the only difference, it seems, is where they were born, something none of them chose.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 13-21
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “War Photographer”
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Lines 1-5
The reassurance of ...
... make a subject.The first eight lines of "War Photographer" introduce one of the poem's main ideas: people often choose to preserve their peace of mind rather than confront the reality of human suffering. The speaker claims that the "frame" of a photograph can be "reassuring" because it's "flexible": it can bend to suit a viewer's tastes. (Note that "frame" here doesn't necessarily refer to a literal, physical picture frame; instead, it refers to the framing of a photograph, the way a still image is plucked from its surroundings.)
In the case of a "tragic" or "absurd" photograph, the frame can be thought of us as a border that emphasizes the separation between the picture and the viewer. That is, viewers can reassure themselves that "people eat, sleep, love normally" outside the photograph. Upon seeing something deeply sad or patently ridiculous, they can comfort themselves with the fact that "normal" life (normal to them, anyway) is still happening as it always does. The poem implies that this tendency is a mark of viewers' own inability to reckon with the difficult reality an image contains. (As the poem goes on, however, the speaker will complicate the notion of photographic reality entirely, suggesting that the truth is slippier than people want to believe.)
These lines also reveal that the speaker is the war photographer of the title: they "seek out the tragic, the absurd" as subjects for their images. Note the strange phrase "take make a subject." The speaker doesn't find a subject but rather creates one, hinting at the artifice of a supposedly objective art form.
Note, too, how these lines use asyndeton in "eat, sleep, love" and "the tragic, the absurd." In addition to suggesting that these lists could go on and on, the double use of asyndeton subtly suggests a link between these two opposing concepts (normal life vs. tragedy and absurdity). This idea will return in the poem's final lines, in which the speaker suggests that the boundaries between heaven and hell (safety and tragedy) are "arbitrary."
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Lines 6-8
Or if the ...
... how things are -
Lines 9-12
—as when at ...
... in champagne giggles -
Lines 13-16
—as last week, ...
... her; my finger pressed. -
Lines 17-21
At the corner, ...
... began to run... -
Lines 22-28
The picture showed ...
... on a wall.
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“War Photographer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
The striking imagery in "War Photographer" emphasizes the juxtaposition between the two photographs that the speaker describes.
In the second stanza, imagery brings to life the speaker's picture of two girls playing outside on the grass in England. Phrases like "sun-gilded" and "silk crumpled" help the reader envision what the picture depicts: it's a bright, sunny day, and the girls are filled with so much delight that they pay no mind to the condition of their clothes. That those clothes are silk implies a degree of comfort and wealth, as does the comparison of their laughter to "champagne giggles." This metaphorical description likens the girls' laughter to the fizzy bubbles in a glass of sparkling wine. The adjective "sun-gilded" suggests that the girls are bathed in gold, while "peach" suggests both the fresh pinkness of their skin and that they're young and healthy. All this language conveys to readers just how joyful, carefree, and privileged these girls are.
The imagery in the following stanzas constructs a very different scene. The speaker emphasizes the "small" size of the girl to hammer home her innocence. The image of her "staggering down some devastated street, / hip thrust out under a baby's weight," meanwhile, reveals that her movements are difficult, likely due both to the rubble/destruction filling the street and the size of the child she carries. The image of "the first bomb of the morning / shatter[ing] the stones" reflects the chaos and horror of the scene. While the English girls let out light-hearted laughter like "champagne," this little girl's "mouth" is "too small for her dark scream"—a surreal bit of imagery that implies she's far too young for the terrible anguish she expresses.
All this imagery calls readers' attention to the vast difference between the conditions of the people in each of these photographs: in the first, children are safe and happy, and in the second, children are scared and vulnerable. This difference is central to the message of "War Photographer," which is concerned with the "arbitrary" nature of safety and comfort.
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Lines 10-12: “a pair of peach, sun-gilded girls / rolling, silk crumpled, on the grass / in champagne giggles”
- Lines 13-15: “a small girl / staggering down some devastated street, / hip thrust out under a baby's weight.”
- Lines 17-21: “the first bomb of the morning / shattered the stones. / Instinct prevailing, she dropped her burden / and, mouth too small for her dark scream, / began to run...”
- Lines 27-28: “its boundaries / arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall.”
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Alliteration
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Asyndeton
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Simile
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"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.
- Frame
- Ascot
- Sun-gilded
- Prevailing
- Arbitrary
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “The reassurance of the frame is flexible”)
By this, the speaker might mean literal, physical picture frames. More broadly, however, the "frame" refers to the specific chunk of a larger scene that a photographer captures in an image. A camera can't photograph the whole world at once; it must select a smaller image, imposing borders onto a scene that don't exist in real life.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “War Photographer”
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Form
"War Photographer" consists of five stanzas of free verse, meaning it doesn't have a regular rhyme scheme or meter. The stanzas are of different lengths except for the second and third, which are both four lines long. These two stanzas describe photographs that depict opposite situations: one features a scene of joy and the other a scene of terror. The equal stanza length encourages the reader to think of the two pictures as mirror images. The similarity of the stanzas' form (both also begin with "—as") makes the juxtaposition between their content more striking.
"War Photographer" is also a persona poem: a poem written from the point of view of a specific person or object separate from the poet.
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Meter
"War Photographer" is written in free verse and thus doesn't have a regular meter. This is typical for contemporary poetry, and here it makes the poem sound conversational and intimate—like the speaker is talking directly to the reader.
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Rhyme Scheme
As a free verse poem, "War Photographer" lacks a regular rhyme scheme. As with the lack of meter, this makes its language feel contemporary and conversational. Instead of rhyme, the poem derives its lyricism from devices like alliteration and consonance.
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“War Photographer” Speaker
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As the title suggests, "War Photographer" is told from the perspective of someone who works as a war photographer. The speaker's nationality is not mentioned, though the reference to the town of Ascot, England, implies that they may be British (unlike a large city like London, Ascot is not widely known to people outside of the United Kingdom). In any case, the speaker is separate from the "tragic" and "absurd" subjects they seek to document. They're an outsider, standing apart from the scenes they capture. This is why it's striking when the speaker says "she saw me seeing her" in line 16: for a moment, the speaker is no longer a passive observer of a scene. They're right there with the girl, and they are also being observed.
The speaker appears to be critical of both their own role in documenting horror and the reception of their work. They understand that people generally interpret images in whatever way makes them most comfortable. The speaker also seems to sense that their art, at times, might be a tool of exploitation rather than education; the speaker enters a space, takes pictures of scenes of devastation, and returns home to showcase these pictures to viewers who often misinterpret them. The speaker is not indifferent, though, and appears deeply affected by what they witness. They recognize that their own life's comfortable conditions are merely a result of random luck, and they come across as critical of people who see their privilege as a certainty or birthright.
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“War Photographer” Setting
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Though the primary setting of this poem is not mentioned, it clearly takes place far from the conflict zone described in the third and fourth stanzas. The speaker's photograph is displayed in a location in which it can be publicly viewed, and the fact that the photograph has a caption suggests that it is being displayed by an art gallery or museum (or, perhaps, that it has been printed in a newspaper).
The speaker says that the photograph described in the second stanza was taken in Ascot, a town in England not far from London. The specificity of this location implies that the pictures are likely being displayed somewhere in the United Kingdom. The poem does not provide a location for the photograph in the third stanza, however. Keeping the location of the war zone anonymous is likely purposeful, both to emphasize the viewers' indifference to the picture's specific context and to allow it to stand in for any one of a wide number of places in which peoples' daily lives are affected by violence. The sense of distance in the poem between the world of the viewers and the world of the little girl in the photograph is also important: it reassures the viewers (mistakenly, the speaker suggests) of their own safety.
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Literary and Historical Context of “War Photographer”
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Literary Context
British poet Carole Satyamurti (1939-2019) published "War Photographer" in her first collection, 1987's Broken Moon. A sociologist and translator in addition to a poet, Satyamurti's poetry often explores themes similar to those found in "War Photographer." Her poem "Memorial," for example, was inspired by a visit to a French village decimated by World War II.
Satyamurti's "War Photographer" is not the first poem with this title. Two years earlier, in 1985, renowned Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy penned a poem on the same subject and with the same name, and Satyamurti possibly meant for her poem to be read in conversation with Duffy's. Lines of Satyamurti’s poem recall lines in Duffy's: Duffy writes, for example, about fields that "explode beneath the feet / of running children in a nightmare heat," lines that echo in Satyamurti's "the first bomb of the morning / shattered the stones. / Instinct prevailing, she […] began to run." That said, the two poems' forms are different: Duffy's poem is relatively structured, with a clear rhyme scheme and six lines in every stanza. Satyamurti’s poem, on the other hand, is written in free verse with an irregular number of lines per stanza.
Historical Context
Carole Satyamurti wrote "War Photographer" in 1987, a time marked by widespread conflict across the globe. These conflicts included the Guatemalan and Sri Lankan Civil Wars as well as the war between Iran and Iraq, which had been going on for about seven years by the time Satyamurti's poem was published. The poem does not name an exact location for the war-torn region where the young girl and the baby are photographed—possibly in order to emphasize how commonplace such devastation is worldwide—but it's possible that Satymurti had the Middle East in mind as she wrote "War Photographer."
Satyamurti is British, and the United Kingdom in the 1980s was a wealthy, peaceful nation headed by the conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Under Thatcher, many social programs aimed at supporting people experiencing poverty were defunded. The poem's interest in the indifference of privileged people to the conditions of the less fortunate is likely influenced by Satyamurti's own cultural context.
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More “War Photographer” Resources
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External Resources
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More Poems by Carole Satyamurti — Read and listen to other works by this poet.
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Carole Satyamurti's Obituary — Read the obituary written after Carole Satyamurti's passing in 2019 to learn more about her life and influence.
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Carol Ann Duffy's "War Photographer" — Read the poem "War Photographer" by Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy, to which Satyamurti's poem perhaps responds.
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