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Eric Fichtl

WELCOME

Thank you for visiting. This website features my photography and writing. Learn a bit more about me.

<p>A woman waits at a level crossing in Buenos Aires.</p>
PHOTOS

Here is a random sample of my photos. Visit my galleries for many more.


<p>A contemplative fisherman in the heart of Zlatá Praha.</p>
<p>A woman and her children on a backstreet of Tunis's Medina. <br /></p> <p>The date on the wall refers to the Tunisian general election from the previous year, which (unsurprisingly) saw the highly corrupt president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 're-elected' for a fourth time – with a mere 94.9 percent of the vote. A few years later, Ben Ali's flagrant misrule sparked the Arab Spring that permanently removed him from power.</p>
<p>Moscow's GUM runs the length of one side of Red Square. It dates from the late 19th Century, and was designed by Alexander Pomerantsev and Vladimir Shukhov. Shukhov in particular engineered this stunning glass roof, which covers several storeys of passages and created a climate-controlled shopping experience long before the suburban shopping mall concept. <br /></p><p>The name GUM, which stands for Main Universal Store (Главный универсальный магазин), was given to the facility during the Soviet period, and has stuck around since. Today, it really is a shopping mall – but with some serious architectural pedigree. </p>
<p>A mural in San Salvador depicts the suffering and scale of the 1979-1992 civil war that had concluded in a peace agreement just a few years earlier.</p>
<p>Blinding light forms a sort of cross in one of Moscow's pedestrian underpasses. These tunnels are a consequence of the span of the city's monumental boulevards.<br /></p>
<p>Workers laying cobbles in Sibiu. </p>
<p>Signs of life at a storefront that's seen better days.</p>
<p>Some of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo prepare to air their calls for justice directly at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires. Their intense expressions match the determination they have shown in their decades-long struggle for accountability.</p>
TEXTS

A lot of what I write professionally carries no by-line. Here are some of the works I have put my name to.

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On Proyecto Desaparecidos' 'Muro de la Memoria'

The Muro invokes the unresolved nature of disappearance, reminding us of the special anguish this crime inflicts. It is also an invitation to action.
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Other or One of Us? Bulgaria’s Attempt to Assimilate Its Ethnic Turks

In the mid 1980s the Bulgarian Communist Party systematically sought to erase the identity of the largest ethnic minority in the state. Why?
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The Ambiguous Nature of “Collaboration” in Colombia

Most Colombians have done something that might result in them being labeled a collaborator or sympathizer by one of Colombia’s armed groups.