French-Spanish filmmaker and photojournalist Christian Poveda was found dead north of San Salvador on Wednesday. (RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)A photojournalist and filmmaker who made headlines with his recent documentary about violent street gangs in El Salvador has been shot dead.

El Salvador police officials said Christian Poveda's body was discovered in a car in a poor rural area north of the capital city, San Salvador.

Investigators believe the 54-year-old French-Spanish photographer and filmmaker may have been ambushed while heading home after filming in an area infamous for gang activity.

Poveda first travelled to El Salvador to cover the country's civil war in the 1980s, when he was a war photojournalist for agencies such as SIPA Press and Keystone.

He also worked for VU and Corbis, with his images published by U.S. and European media outlets such as the New York Times and Le Monde, as well as in group and solo art exhibitions around the globe.

He eventually returned to El Salvador for good in the 1990s in order to focus the Latin American country's violent gangs and the poverty that pushes its youth towards a life of crime.

Poveda's hard-hitting 2008 documentary La Vida Loca (The Crazy Life) was a portrait of members of the Mara 18 street gang, several of whom were killed or imprisoned during filming.

The movie was controversial for its disturbing imagery — including gang members being gunned down — as well as for its criticism of El Salvador authorities who don't pay attention to how social conditions in the impoverished country led children as young as 12 or 13 to be lured into gangs.

In a statement, El Salvador President Mauricio Funes expressed shock over Poveda's death, and ordered a full police investigation and inquiry.

With files from The Associated Press