Hello everyone.

Thanks for joining me in today's lesson on understanding the poem, "War Photographer" by Carol Ann Duffy.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be walking you through the lesson today.

For this lesson, you are going to need your copy of the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology.

So make sure you go and get your anthology before you continue with this lesson.

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to explain what "War Photographer" is about and understand the underlying context for this poem.

Here are three key words that's are going to be crucial in our understanding of the poem "War Photographer." Let's go through them together.

The first word is indifference.

Indifference means lack of interest, concern or sympathy.

So if someone is indifferent, they are not showing any interest, concern, or sympathy towards something.

Ethical means in accordance with moral conduct.

So a lot of research experiments have to be ethical.

They have to have all the participants best interests at heart and they cannot cause harm to anyone involved if they are said to be ethical.

Conscience.

A conscience is a person's moral sense of right or wrong.

Everyone could be said to have a conscience, which helps us make the right decisions, helps treat people how they should be treated.

And also a conscience is responsible for the feeling of guilt when sometimes we don't do the right thing.

Pause the video and make a note of those keywords now.

Off you go.

We'll be exploring all of these concepts in today's lesson.

So don't worry if they don't make sense quite yet.

Let's go through the lesson now.

So in the first part of today's lesson, we'll be reading, exploring, and enjoying the poem "War Photographer." In the second part of the lesson, we'll be looking at the poem "War Photographer" critically we'll be examining some of the concepts in the poem through our own critical lens and forming our own opinions, which is always a great thing to do.

So let's start with exploring the poem "War Photographer." First of all, I want you to discuss what forms of news coverage do you find most powerful.

You might choose from the list shown on the screen there.

Pause the video and discuss that question.

Now, the type of news coverage you find most powerful might differ from the person sitting next to you.

That's okay.

Everyone reacts differently to different mediums. You may have said that interviews might be quite powerful to you because you get to see someone talking about the perspective and you get quite a deep insight into a problem because you are hearing a firsthand experience.

You may have said any other example.

It's just food for thought to get you thinking about today's poem.

Now we're going to read the poem "War Photographer." I want you to open your anthology to the poem and read it aloud.

Off you go.

I hope you enjoyed that poem.

It is personally one of my favourites from the anthology.

I want you to discuss now what stood out to you in this poem.

What do you think the job on line seven is? And on line 16 and 17, what do you think he has to get permission for? Pause the video and discuss those questions.

So what stood out to you in this poem? For me stanza three stands out, and that's because I was really taken aback by the flashbacks that the person being described experiences in that stanza.

I think that is an extremely powerful stanza in showing the emotions of the person being described.

What do you think the job online seven is? Hopefully you've noticed that the job described in this poem is the job of a war photographer, and that's a person who takes photos of war and of conflict.

On line 16 to 17, what do you think he has to get permission for? On line 16 and 17 potentially the photographer has to get permission to take a very harrowing photograph of bloodshed, death or suffering.

Now the statements below summarise the poem.

I want you to discuss which order they go in to check your comprehension of this poem.

So order these statements.

He reflects on the indifference that people in his hometown show towards suffering.

B, he reflects on the fact he's now on safe territory.

C, he experiences horrific flashbacks of war zones and D, he begins to develop photos.

Discuss with your partner now which order did these statements go in? Let's go through what you may have said.

The perm begins with the photographer developing photos and these are photos of war.

Next, the photographer reflects on the fact he's now on safe territory and we may see a sense of relief in the photographer at this point, but also that's compounded with a sense of guilt.

'cause whilst he is safe, the people he takes photos of are not.

Next.

The photographer experiences horrific flashbacks of war zones, and in this sense Duffy allows us to see how even those who don't fight in war are still very much traumatised by witnessing it.

And lastly, the photographer reflects on the indifference that people in his hometown show towards suffering.

Remember, indifference means lack of concern or sympathy towards something.

So the so back where the photographer lives, The people there, they seem to not care about the suffering outside of their country or city.

We'll discuss how the photographer might feel about that later in the lesson.

Now let's think about who the he that Duffy refers to could be.

Pause the video and discuss who you think the he that Duffy refers to is.

So the he in the poem is a war photographer, but the he may actually be closer to Duffy than you might have realised.

Duffy may have based this poem around her friend Don McCullin.

And McCullin is a photojournalist.

This means he tells news stories through photos.

And McCullin travels across the world to photograph different wars and conflicts.

I want you to discuss now what might it feel like to be someone that takes photos of war and why do you think people take photos of war in the first place? Pause the video and discuss those questions.

Off you go.

So to be a war photographer you may have said might feel quite hard at times quite difficult because they put their lives at risk to take some quite harrowing photos and to be around a lot of suffering and violence.

That can take a toll on a person, especially if those photos are not being considered properly when they're published and not being reflected on.

A lot of war photographers comment that they want their photos to appeal to people's consciences.

So they want their photos of war to make people think about what is right and what is wrong, and essentially to create a better society, where we don't allow the suffering that occurs in war.

So a lot of photojournalist probably take photos of war to make a change in society and to raise awareness of the sheer suffering that goes on in war zones.

And quite often they're risking their own lives to do so.

One thing to be aware of is that "War Photographer" was published in 1985, and this was 10 years after the Vietnam War ended.

So Duffy may have based a lot of the description and incidents in her poem on the Vietnam War.

Here are some photographs taken during the Vietnam War.

How do you think it felt for the people being photographed? Discuss that question now.

So on the left there in that photograph, we see a soldier grieving over many dead bodies and we see in the right photograph potentially what might be a father and a son that is very, very much injured and suffering due to brutal attacks.

How might it feel for the people being photographed? It may feel quite uncomfortable for the people being photographed because they are experiencing very raw emotions and it may feel quite odd for them to be photographed in those really difficult moments of their lives.

They might not want to expose themselves in those moments and they might not want to share those moments with the world.

Why do you think Duffy chose to write about war photography? Pause the video and discuss that question now.

Maybe Duffy wanted to write about war photography to show how people on either side of the lens might feel in these scenarios.

So Duffy shows us how it might feel to be the person being photographed, and she also shows us how it feels to be the person taking the photograph.

And it raises awareness of the sheer suffering that occurs in war zones no matter who you are.

Duffy's friend Don McCullin also photographed the Vietnam War, so he would've taken photos like the ones you see on the screen.

I want you to discuss now how you think it felt for the photographer of these pictures and of pictures like these.

Pause the video and discuss that now.

The photographer of these photos may also feel uncomfortable because they may be aware of the raw emotions that the people being photographed are experiencing.

And this may also lead to a sense of guilt in a photographer because they are snap, they're creating a snapshot of people's pain and that might feel like a very wrong thing to do when people are grieving, when people are suffering, when people are injured, when people are dying, the last thing they would want potentially, the last thing they would want is a photograph.

And the last thing someone would want to do is to take a photograph.

They often needs to be led to grieve on their own and to experience these things privately.

So this raises the question then.

If being photographed at war is uncomfortable and taking the photo is also uncomfortable, then why is it done? We'll think about that later in the lesson.

Let's check your understanding now.

Who may Duffy have based her poem on? Pause the video and answer that question.

Off you go.

Duffy may have based her poem on her friend who is a photojournalist.

So her friend Don McCullin took photos to tell news stories and he often went to war zones to tell the stories of war.

"War Photographer" was published 10 years after which war? Pause the video and answer that question now.

The poem "War Photographer" was published 10 years after the Vietnam War, and this was a war that was highly photographed and documented, which allowed the public to reflect on the brutalities and atrocities of this war.

And indeed, Duffy may have used a lot of the conflict in a lot of the conflict in the Vietnam War in her poem.

So I now want you to complete the table to show your understanding of the poem and the key contextual information that we've discussed.

The first thing to do is to write your own summary of the poem next, what is the key contextual information that surrounds this poem? Next, how do you think Duffy feels towards the war photographer? Next, how do you think Duffy feels about the civilians that aren't in war zones? So the people that look at the photographs after they're published.

And why do you think Duffy wrote this poem? Pause the video and complete that table to show your understanding of the poem.

Off you go.

Let's go through some ideas.

A summary of the poem might look like this.

a war photographer reflects on the horrors of war and the fact that those in his home country are indifferent to the suffering of foreign war zones.

What is the key contextual information that surrounds his poem? Duffy's friend McCullin was a photojournalist who captured photos from the Vietnam War and wanted people to be moved by his photography.

How do you think Duffy feels towards the war photographer? Duffy may sympathise with the war photographer who does a harrowing job, but seems to not achieve his purpose.

And remember, Duffy had a close friend that did photograph the war.

So she would've seen how both the acts of photography and how people not reacting strongly to the photos would've affected her friend.

How do you think Duffy feels about the civilians that aren't in war zones? There seems to be a critical tone in the last lines of the poem.

So perhaps Duffy is disappointed that some people are not moved by photos of war.

And why do you think Duffy wrote this poem? Perhaps Duffy wants to raise awareness of the difficulty that war photographers face both in the war zones and back home.

Perhaps she wants more social action and less indifference.

Well done for showing your brilliant understanding of this poem by answering those questions.

Let's now look at the poem critically.

To be critical means to analyse something thoroughly in order to make, in order to come to a judgement.

Conflict photography can be considered controversial because of the pain it depicts.

I want you to develop your critical thinking skills now by discussing the question below.

Is war photography ethical? That means is war photography morally right? Pause the video and discuss that question.

Well done for discussing that topic in a very sensitive and mature way.

So let's look at what you may have said.

On one hand, war photography may help to awaken people across the world to the immense suffering in war zones.

So we can see that potentially war photography is ethical when we consider the reason why it's done.

If we consider that the motive for war photography is to make change, is to inspire social action, then we could say that war photography is ethical, is right.

But on the other hand, taking a photo of someone suffering is insensitive, like we discussed earlier, a lot of the time people want to suffer and grieve privately and this is a right that they have.

To take photos of it almost seems to exploit that.

So we have two cases on either side of the question for is war photography ethical? Now in stanza four, Duffy says the photographer must take his war photo.

I want you to now to discuss this question.

Is war photography necessary? Pause the video and discuss.

Aisha says, "Perhaps not.

Perhaps war photography isn't necessary because other mediums such as articles such as interviews can tell the public what's happening at war." Andeep says he does think war photography is necessary because in a digital age, nothing is more powerful at moving people to action than photographs.

Perhaps you agree with Aisha.

Perhaps you agree with Andeep.

There is no right or wrong answer, but it's an important question to reflect on to help you critically analyse that line of Duffy's in stanza four.

Which of the below could suggest war photography is ethical.

It raises awareness of the immense suffering in war zones, it is insensitive to take pictures of suffering, or it harms the photographer's mental health.

Pause the video and answer that question.

Remember we said, to be ethical means to be morally right.

So which of the below then suggests that war photography is right, is the right thing to do.

War photography can be considered ethical or the right thing to do because it erases awareness of the immense suffering in war zones.

In this sense, the photo has a purpose and the job has a noble purpose, which is to evoke social action to reduce the suffering in war zones.

Now, which word from the poem suggests that the war photographer was acting in accordance with ethics when taking photos? Pause the video and answer that question.

The word approval suggests that the war photographer was acting in accordance with ethics when taking photos because he asks a woman in the war if he is allowed to take the photo, which seemed to suggest that he is respecting the woman's privacy and he is only taking the photo with her permission, and that suggests he's acting in an ethical way.

Now, in the final stanza of the poem, there seems to be a critical tone towards those who do not seem moved by the war photos.

That leads us on to our last question to discuss.

The question is, is indifference an issue in our society? I want you to discuss that question now.

Here are some sentence starters.

I think Duffy is justified or not justified in.

In our society.

For example.

This means that.

Remember, handle this topic in a sensitive and mature way and respect everyone else's opinions.

Pause the video and discuss.

Well done for listening carefully to each other and respecting each other's opinions.

I'll let you keep those ideas to yourselves.

During your discussion, did you want to justify your opinion convincingly? Ensure you've used specific examples of where you have or have not seen indifference and its effects? If your partner needs to expand on an idea, ask them clarifying questions, pause the video and ensure that you've justified your argument convincingly.

Great job.

Here's what we've learned today.

The poem may be based on Duffy's friend Don McCullin, a photojournalist who has moved by his time in war zones.

In the poem, photojournalism is depicted as an important and necessary job.

Many photojournalist wish for their photos to incite awareness and social action in the public Duffy's war photographer seems to criticise our increasing indifference to the victims of conflict.

And the poem explores the lesser explored experiences of psychological and moral conflict that war presents.

Thanks for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope this lesson has helped you understand the poem "War Photographer" and I hope to see you in another lesson soon.