The Ethics of Spectatorship: War Photographer and the Politics of Viewing Violence

Abstract

Carol Ann Duffy’s War Photographer terrifyingly examines the ethical values of spectatorship and the political morality of screening violence, offering tragic interpretation on the part of media in shaping civic perception of war. This paper explores the ethical dilemma inborn in war photography, curious in the ways in which photograph of anguish are consumed, processed, and over and over again overlooked through far-away audiences. Throughout the poem’s structured meticulousness, depressing metaphors, and tonal shifts, Duffy highlights the expressive and psychological load carried by those who document difference of opinion, contrasting it with the lack of interest of those who simply observe from a position of insensitivity. The poem highlights the tension between experiencing war firsthand and seeing it via mediated representation by presenting the war photographer as both an observer and an outsider. This study investigates the commodification of torment, the aestheticization of violence, and the function of visual media in determining narratives of inconsistency. The analysis additional interrogates how the act of viewing violence influences public sense of right and wrong and ethical conscientiousness. in due course, War Photographer serves as a prevailing analysis of passive spectatorship, urging a reassessment of how war and human suffering are professed in present-day society. In a society where media is pervasive, this study adds to larger discussions about ethics, war representation, and the relationship between art and ethics.