Previously unpublished images by the Time magazine photographer illuminate an important chapter in Latin American history.
In the early 1980s, the Cold War clashes that had bloodied other parts of the world shifted to Central America. Following the overthrow of Nicaragua's Somoza government by the left-wing Sandinista rebels in 1979, the United States sought to prop up El Salvador's right-wing military government as a backstop against home-grown insurgents and rising Soviet and Cuban influence. Its role helped fuel a lethal 13-year civil war. Legacy of Lies contains previously unpublished black-and-white images that American photographer Robert Nickelsberg produced on behalf of Time magazine and is supplemented by essays by renowned journalists. Robert Nickelsberg worked as a Time magazine contract photographer for nearly thirty years, specializing in political and cultural change in developing countries.
Anderson, Jon Lee: - Jon Lee Anderson (b. 1957) is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. He began his career in the early 1980s, reporting on Central America's civil wars for TIME magazine and other journals. Over the years since, he has covered numerous conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and reported frequently from Latin America. Anderson is the author of several books, including Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, and Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World.
Briant, Bonnie: - Bonnie Briant is a graphic designer who runs her studio in New York City. Her projects have received awards and commendations from Time Magazine, the New York Times, American Photo, Photo District News, Aperture/Paris Photo Book Awards and National Geographic.
Dada, Carlos: - Carlos Dada (b. 1970) is the founder and editor of El Faro, the online magazine based in San Salvador. He has reported extensively on human rights and war crimes, and his work has been awarded with the Maria Moors Cabot Prize. Dada is a founding member of the Central American Journalists Network. In 2022, he was named World Press Freedom Hero by the International Press Institute. He is writing a book about the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero.
Guillermoprieto, Alma: - Alma Guillermoprieto (b. 1949) was one of the first journalists to break the story of the El Mozote massacre while reporting on the war in El Salvador for the Washington Post. She has written extensively about Latin America for The New Yorker and The Guardian and is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. In 1990, Guillermoprieto won a Maria Moors Cabot Prize, honoring her contributions to press freedom and inter-American understanding in the Western hemisphere. In the fall of 2008, Guillermoprieto joined the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, as a Tinker Visiting Professor. In 2017, she won the Ortega y Gasset Award for her career in journalism and in 2018, the Princesa de Asturias Award in Communication and Humanities, Spain's most prestigious award for authors.
Nickelsberg, Robert: - "Robert Nickelsberg worked as a Time magazine contract photographer for nearly 30 years, beginning in El Salvador and its neighbors from 1981 to 1984. He is the author of Afghanistan - A Distant War, published in 2013 by Prestel, and Afghanistan's Heritage: Restoring Spirit and Stone, done in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State and published in English and Dari in May 2018 and in Pashtu in 2021. He lives in Brooklyn, New York."
Wallace, Scott: - Scott Wallace (b. 1954) covered the conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala from 1983 to 1990 for a succession of news outlets, including CBS News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newsweek, and The Guardian. He is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut and a National Geographic contributor. Wallace graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1977 and from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri with a Masters in Print and Broadcast Reporting.
