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Eric Fichtl
<p>Trees peek through the mist in Val di Funes – a great welcome for a day of hiking!<br /></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>An elephant bull roams under the big sky of Kruger National Park.</p>
<p>A night view of the lively Jamaa el Fna.<br /></p>
<p>A group of kids very amused to have their picture taken. <br /></p><p>Part of the graffiti reads 'Das dores boavida', which can translate as 'From pain, a good life'.<br /></p>
<p>A tall oak and other trees coated just perfectly during a rare Berlin snowfall. <br /></p> <p>As I took this picture, a woman walking her dog passed by and said 'No one will ever believe those pictures are from Berlin'. Fair point.</p>
<p>Two soldiers guard a street corner in central Tame, a town in Colombia's war-ravaged Arauca department. Their presence was part of an attempt to hold the town after it was reclaimed from guerrillas. <br /></p><p>They are laughing at a joke my colleague made about the relative size of their weapons – indeed, the US M60 carried by the soldier at left is a hefty machine gun often fired by a team of two or three gunners, while the soldier at right carries a more standard-issue Galil, an Israeli derivative of the infamous Soviet/Russian AK-47. </p>
<p>A man thinks while drinking pulque, a traditional Mesoamerican indigenous drink made from the maguey plant.</p>
<p>A telephoto shot of the face of some of the lesser Dolomite peaks, with the Odle group in the distance.</p>
<p>An eagle (a Wahlberg's eagle, I think) spreads its wings while resting on a tree branch.</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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On Jacobo Timerman's 'Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number'

A powerful memoir of the Argentine junta's crimes, ripe with lessons for our present period of strongmen and 'friendly fascism'.
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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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On Nury Vittachi's 'North Wind'

Hong Kong writer Vittachi examines pressure on free speech during the 1997 handover from Britain to China