what is the interpretation of this poem?

Question

"Looking" by Mabi David

His eye on the target: an earlobe.
The finger hooks the trigger, dispatch
of instruction and the barrel tips upward
in an arc that will land the man dead.

He will not loosen his grip on his camera,
the finger a steady crook on the shutter.
What has he lost that now steadies him,
that he can whisper Hold still to himself,
or to this man with the gun,
maybe even to his prisoner?
For this prize, that instant when the bullet swifts through the skull,
and he is past afraid, past his terror for himself, the man,
reducing fear to a frown you put on when someone
you once slept with without having to love, died.

This is his favorite photograph:
Eddie Adams' "Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner."
Mind-blowing, he repeats each time he looks at it.
A student of the decisive moment:
Pity to be gifted with such instances and to look away.
Even when he slapped her he insisted on eye contact.
This is how you know it is duty.
That time he sat her through two hours of B-horror,
held her knee and she could not move.
He always meant well, believing good did not mean tenderness.
Wrinkled and bent like a broken wing, now in fits he coughs.

He had called her, made her kneel on the floor
where he spat, and asked if there was blood.
How could she move away and be dutiful?

When he dies, she will remember this:
looking at him looking at the photograph,
through Adams to the stunned man,
missing the point of horror and compassion.

Answer 1

The first two stanzas play on the double meaning of "shooting" someone. One is with a camera and one is with a gun.
The end of the second stanza talks about how he makes himself numb to the fact that he is about to see the execution of a human being - he is no longer afraid for himself, for the man. He trades his instinctive emotions for the price of journalism. The last two lines highlight nonchalance.

The third stanza talks about the infamous photo of the Vietnamese guy about to die. The person in the poem realizes that the gift of capturing this moment in a photo is bittersweet. Next, comes the description of a relationship in which he abuses "her". He dominates (she cannot move during the movie though he is only holding her knee). He thinks he's still a good person b/c he believes he can pull it off w/o being tender. This callous detachment in his professional life spills over into his personal life.
The final stanza connects all four people together: the subject of the poem (he), Adams, the subject's lady (her), and the man in the photo. It directly points out the fact that the "he" of the poem completely missed the point of the photo.
I think this is a commentary on photo-journalism (or just photography in general). Many photographers who cover volatile events in history are criticized for capturing brutal images: images that truly show man's inhumanity to man. Many people think that it's not decent to take pictures of others' tragedy. Some people think it's necessary because it's the truth. Those pictures capture both - horror and compassion.

Answer 2

It sounds to me as regardless that there's a darkness, a few despair and ensuing anger that has turn out to be the norm on this people existence. Even whilst the brilliant mild comes she pushes the existence preserver of desire away in anger, and is certain that she isn't going to be suffering from all of this. Her imaginative and prescient is blurred by way of the murky/turbid dust of pleasure that turns out to weigh her down. But eventually regardless of how a long way she is going down by way of the burden , there may be that "sunken treasure" of desire that reaches out and all can also be salvaged.

Answer 3

Mabi David

Answer 4

it's about a photographer who's shooting a picture of a guy killing himself in front of his gf or wife