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Eric Fichtl
<p>A pair of hikers heading toward the Sas de Pütia / Peitlerkofel peak, visible during a brief clearing in the mists and clouds that were whipping around up there. </p>

Thanks for visiting. This website features my photography, writing, and a bit about me.

PHOTOS

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


<p>Members of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo carry a banner displaying portraits of their relatives disappeared by Argentina's military junta of 1976-1983. <br /></p> <p>Mothers, grandmothers, and other relatives began these marches during the dictatorship, gathering each Thursday at the Plaza de Mayo to demand accountability and justice for their missing loved ones. Their movement adopted the name of the square. <br /></p> <p>This photo was taken in 1999, 22 years after they had commenced their rallies. They continue marching to this day.</p>
<p>With the camera positioned just so, this neoclassical cupola appears to sit proportionally atop a modernist base in the heart of Potsdam. It kind of works. <br /></p> <p>They are, though, two separate buildings. The dome belongs to the St. Nicholas Church, which dates from the mid 19th Century when Potsdam was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In the foreground is the facade of the Institut für Lehrerbildung 'Rosa Luxemburg', a teacher training academy built in the 1970s when Potsdam was part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).</p> <p>This view no longer exists. <br /></p> <p>A 2010 decision by Potsdam city officials ordered the dismantling of the Institut, which duly occurred in 2017. It is to be replaced by a new structure that will recreate the facade of Prussian palace while masking a contemporary interior – the rationale being to create an architecturally harmonious setting on a key central square. <br /></p> <p>Sound familiar? Berlin also recently opted to remove the DDR-era modernist Palast der Republik (itself built on the site of a Prussian palace the East German government had demolished for its symbolic associations with the imperial past) and erect a simulacrum Prussian palace (the Humboldt Forum project). </p> <p>These decisions – which evoke one history while erasing another – are a continuation of Germany's highly contested reckoning with its past, as Brian Ladd explores in his excellent book, <em>Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape</em>. For some, the frequent consensus for neoclassical lines among politicians and urban planners is a canny dodge reflecting a certain conservatism – it seeks to escape the extremes of the 20th Century (including their manifestations in architecture) by locating historically safe ground in the perceived unity of the imperial Germany of the Kaisers. But that preference is a hagiographic illusion (the clue is in the word 'imperial'), and opts for an allegorical amnesia over a challenging architectural response to the complexity of the German experience. <br /></p> <p>There is something incredibly uninspired (not to say regressive) about rebuilding long-gone imperial palaces on sites where the ground is both hallowed and historically contested. And as beautiful as neoclassical facades may be (and Berlin and Potsdam have plenty of them to show off), as 21st Century new-builds they are dated symbols that fail equally at capturing nuanced historic legacy and at presenting the forward-looking aspects of contemporary German society. </p>
<p>Encountered on a central Sofia side street. </p>
<p>A storm front moves in over rice paddies near Ubud, on Bali. </p>
<p>Portrait of Dominique</p>
<p>Cherry blossoms in bloom in Berlin. <br /></p> <p>The swirling background comes from a fantastic old lens, the Asahi SMC Takumar 135/f3.5. </p>
<p>A view over misty hills, seen from a stretch of the Great Wall.</p>
<p>A cemetery in the mountains in Timor-Leste's west. The country's Roman Catholicism is a legacy of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. </p>
TEXTS

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

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Let Them Eat Cake… The End of the Tortilla Subsidy in Mexico

The cost of that most Mexican of basic foodstuffs jumped by 25% as the government repealed price control legislation.
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Washington Has Lost Its Way in Colombia

Evidence from Putumayo, as well as the streets of U.S. cities, make clear that the fumigation campaign is a monumental failure.
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Civilian “Collaborators” in Colombia’s Conflict

Though press reports often cite deaths of civilian collaborators, what qualifies as “collaboration” is rarely explored by mainstream coverage.