El Salvador: Legacy of Violence
Robert Nickelsberg + Fred Ramos

The Bronx Documentary Center’s exhibition, El Salvador: Legacy of Violence, pairs two important and historic photographic projects done three decades apart–one by American Robert Nickelsberg, the other by Salvadoran photographer Fred Ramos–bodies of work that mirror, inform and resonate, each with the other. The two projects define El Salvador's troubled Cold War history, document today's political evolution and focus on US complicity and negligence in the small Central American country's troubled past and present.

Ramos, born in 1986, and a World Press Photo Award winner, shows us the current land of unfortunate extremes–in the past decade, El Salvador has gone from being one of the most violent countries in the world, largely controlled by heavily armed gangs, to today being the country with the highest incarceration rate on the planet. Ramos’ photos document, as well, some of the millions of Salvadorans who have made a dangerous trek north to seek refuge in the United States, and the brutal, autocratic and wildly popular crackdown by President Najib Bukele.

Upon viewing Ramos’ troubling photos, the obvious question is,  “How did this small, stunningly beautiful country of six million get to this point?”

Veteran photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg answers this question with more than three dozen black-and-white photos taken shortly before Ramos’ was born. Nickelsberg, who covered most of the world’s conflicts and cultural and political revolutions for 30 years as a Time Magazine contract photographer, spent years documenting El Salvador’s brutal civil war during the early 1980s. His photos show us everyday life in the Salvadoran countryside, set off by jarring, violent images of combat and death as American advisors and Latin American leftists turned El Salvador into a Cold War pawn littered with tortured bodies, primarily those of civilians.

Together, Ramos’ and Nickelsberg’s photos reflect on this often ignored history, triggering questions about US foreign policy and the legacy of the Cold War. Their work also looks at issues of dictatorship versus democracy at the ground level, as Salvadoran’s struggle to live daily lives filled with dignity and peace.

Gallery Hours: Thurs-Fri 3-7PM + Sat-Sun 1-5PM
Free admission

Robert Nickelsberg (@nickelsberg)
Nickelsberg worked as a Time Magazine contract photographer for nearly 30 years, specializing in political and cultural change in developing countries. He is the author of Afghanistan – A Distant War, published in 2013 by Prestel, which represents his 25 years of work in Afghanistan. Nickelsberg’s second book, Afghanistan’s Heritage: Restoring Spirit and Stone, done in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, was published in English, Dari and Pashto in May 2018. In April 2024, Kehrer Verlag published Legacy of Lies, El Salvador 1981-1984, a collection of black and white images shot during the civil war in El Salvador, 1981-1984, for Time Magazine. Nickelsberg lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Fred Ramos (@ramos_fred)
Ramos is a Salvadoran freelance photographer. He has covered migration, politics, and environmental conflict across the Americas, from Ecuador to the U.S., and frequently returns to El Salvador to document President Nayib Bukele’s war on gangs. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, and other major international publications.

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Location: BDC Annex, 364 E. 151st St, Bronx, NY 10455

HEADER IMAGE: Guerrillas from the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, ERP, speak with local residents of San Agustín, Usulután department, July 5, 1983. © Robert Nickelsberg

INTERIOR IMAGE: A woman hugs her boyfriend before police officers take him into a provisional detention center in San Salvador in June 2022. Since March 2022, 80,000 people have been arrested in El Salvador under the state of emergency declared by President Bukele. The state of emergency gives authorities broad powers to make arrests based on flimsy to no evidence, intervene communications without a warrant, and ignore due process protections. Government officials have repeatedly claimed that all those arrested are gang members, but thousands of people have denounced what they say are arbitrary arrests of their relatives. © Fred Ramos