Line 6 refers to “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh,” recited as if the photographer is “inton[ing]” them during a Mass. Why did Duffy select these three capital cities for the photographer to “intone”? They are all locations of major conflicts during the 1970s that, it is implied, the photographer has depicted in his work. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland and was plagued with intense violence during the “Troubles,” a long-running internal war in Ireland that, while complex, could be broadly characterized as a religious and nationalist conflict between Protestants and Catholics. Because the Troubles were so complex, imagery such as photography played an immense role in shaping the conflict in the public’s perception and in creating post-hoc political interpretations of the war. Historian Jim Smyth emphasizes the need for interpretations of the Irish conflict to “demythologize” the simplifications on both sides and carefully excavate the more complicated truth. Therefore, the Troubles are a fitting and symbolic example for "War Photographer," which thematically focuses on memory and its relationship to trauma. Just as the photographer grapples with his memories and questions whether his photographs can truly convey the reality of the situation to his readers, many observers have struggled to truly process and understand the Troubles.
Additionally, the conflict involved disturbing violence, making it emblematic of the poem’s theme of the horrors of war. For example, British photojournalist Ian Berry “saw violence so profound that for the second time in his career he considered putting his camera down and intervening.” This again intersects well with the poem’s broader themes; the photographer feels guilt over taking the photograph without intervening when he “sought approval” from the stranger’s wife to take a picture of the war. Beirut is the capital of Lebanon; the poem likely refers to the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1999). Similarly, this conflict demonstrates the poem’s dual themes of the trauma of war and the complex relationship between war, photography, and memory. Further reinforcing the implicit role of Don McCullin as the photographer depicted in the poem, McCullin also took photographs in Lebanon. One photographer who also documented the Lebanese Civil War, Philip Caputo, remembers being shot in action. “For the first time in [his] life,” Caputo was “compelled to share in the anguish that [he] had previously recorded.” The street fighting of the Lebanese Civil War heavily involved the photographer himself in the violence and danger, which is also evoked in the poem by the photographer’s close, immediate observation of “nightmare heat” and the “blood stain[ing] into forest dust.”
Finally, Phnom Penh is the current capital of Cambodia and likely refers to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War and the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. In recent years, this conflict has been called “forgotten,” overshadowed by the fighting in North Vietnam—again reflecting the theme of memory. Again, Don McCullin photographed this conflict, taking many visceral and disturbing photos, such as severely wounded soldiers in hospitals. McCullin exhibited these photographs in 2015 and acknowledged that his work is “tough to look at.”
