The poem that really caught my eye in the second half of Duffy’s “Standing Female Nude” was titled War Photographer. Duffy describes a man who is developing film in his dark room. The photos that he is pinning up in the red glow are of soldiers and event that happened in the war. At first, it might have been just a job. But battle fronts change people in ways that only those who experience it can understand.

I think this is a really interesting poem. War photographers aren’t really talked about much unless one of them takes a particularly iconic photo or – more often than not – is caught in the line of fire and killed. Otherwise, they go out to the front lines, take pictures and come home having seen horrors that their employers don’t truly understand.

A couple of years ago, I read a book called “10% Happier” by Dan Harris. Dan Harris is a famous reporter for ABC who, in the early years of his career, reported from active war zones across the world. In his book, Dan talks about how his experiences in Iraq and how once he got back, he experienced some major PTSD. He tried his best to hide it but had to admit that he needed help after having a panic attack, live, on Good Morning America.

Dan, like the man in Duffy’s poem, experienced trauma from his work that his bosses hadn’t realized. The last two lines of the poem read, “From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.” I don’t think that Dan’s or the man’s bosses truly didn’t care but instead had a hard time understanding how such employment can truly change someone. From an outsider’s point of view being a war photographer could seem easier than it actually is. After all, the photographer didn’t have to pull the trigger, right?

I think Duffy does a great job at showing that it doesn’t matter that the photographer didn’t have to pull the trigger. The ghosts of the things he saw and the people he met and then lost stick with him and change his perspective on life.

Pictures usually hold good memories. Memories that people love to look back on and reminisce about. But the pictures in this poem aren’t like that. “He remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust.” These images that the photographer is developing are causing him to relive the pain and loss that he experienced before returning home. No wonder it is so hard for him as he stands in the red light and watches the faces of soldiers and appear like ghosts on the photo paper that will preserve their final moments on earth forever.

This poem was probably my favorite in Duffy’s collection. I think Duffy did a great job at putting the reader inside of the room with the photographer. It makes me stop and wonder about what pictures I have that hold the memories of people that I loved and have since passed. We might not be war photographers, but we have all faced different battles in life. Some of them may have been captured throughout photos or other memorabilia, but they all change us – just like war can change a photographer. It might not be in the same way, but the shadows of those we have lost linger inside of us shape who we are. Just like the ghosts of fallen soldiers linger and shape a war photographer.