Robert Nickelsberg

Robert Nickelsberg (2019) a TIME magazine contract photographer for 25 years, was based in New Delhi from 1988 to 2000. During that time he documented conflicts in Kashmir, Iraq, Sri Lanka, India and Afghanistan. He was one of the few photographers who had firsthand exposure to the early days of the rise of fundamentalist groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal areas and al-Qaida.

Robert moved to New York in 2000 and continues to travel overseas; previously to report on the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, and currently to focus on chronicling the devastating psychological effects of war in Kashmir. In 2008, he was awarded grants from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and from the South Asia Journalists Association to document and report on post-traumatic stress disorder in Kashmir after 20 years of insurgency. Robert has published two books on Afghanistan titled “Afghanistan: A Distant War” (Prestel) and “Afghanistan’s Heritage: Restoring Spirit and Stone” (The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago).

As a Logan Nonfiction fellow Robert will edit the portraits and images he took during his time covering Guatemala’s violent counterinsurgency campaign from 1981 to 1984 while he was based in El Salvador for TIME magazine. The campaign was aimed at eliminating leftist guerrillas and annihilating the indigenous Mayan population in the Ixil region and the western highlands. Robert will return to the same locations to update his photographs and reporting about collective memory, the long-term effects and trauma of military violence and abuse of its citizens.