Biography:
Graduating with a BA (Hons) in Photography from Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham, England in the Late 80′s, Craig went on to win The David Hodge Memorial Award Young Photojournalist of the Year with a story he had covered in Thailand. He...
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Focus:Photographer, Photojournalist, Journalist
Covering:Europe,
Skills:Black & White Printing
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Munich Shooting, Germany.
craig stennett
Jul 25, 2016
Spent the weekend in Munich for The Sunday/Daily Telegraph. Its not often that i cover Hard News stories these days as I'm more involved in writing and photographing my own features for Readers Digest etc. However, covering the Olympia Shopping Mall shooting where 9 young people were killed and a further 27 wounded took me back to the days of being with in a mass media 'event/news story' as most of the worlds press descended on to Munich for the weekend. The post event analysis on the shooter Ali David Solemnly, who also took his own life at the end of his shooting spree, seems to via towards more gun control and banning of violent video games as some sort of solution to these events. His obsession with the far right assassin Anders Behring Breivik has also been noted as the shootings in Munich took place on the anniversary of the Brevik killings in Oslo and the Island of Utaya. Some how, to me, this seems a bit hollow. The young man was obviously deeply troubled and there is evidence of continual bullying during his school years. I just wonder why as a society we miss or pass by all the warning signs that might indicate someone is going astray or suffering before these things manifest themselves into violent acts. I'm not sure its possible, but to lean on the explanation that he was simply 'mad' seems to abdicate a wider societal involvement in this 'madness'. Just some thoughts.