Us vs Them — John Stanmeyer

Alt-right supporters and Neo Nazi's use shields and weapons to protect the Robert E Lee statue during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, August 12, 2017. Nearly 1000 people from the Alt-right movement attended the event from across the country. By the end of the day, one person was dead, countless others injured.

Alt-right supporters and Neo Nazi's beat protestors during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, August 12, 2017. In recent years, hatred and division have dramatically increased in the United States.

Alt-Right supporter dressed in metal as a knight, holds a WWI German flag, at Mcguffey park in Charlottesville, VA, the meeting point for the Unite the Right rally on Saturday, August 12. By the end of the day, an Alt-Right supporter had killed a woman and injured others by driving his car into a crowd of peaceful protestors.

Aghdam, a ghost town in the Nagorno-Karabakh, once inhabited by ethnic Azeri’s and Armenians living peacefully together, now in ruins. A war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1993 during the fall of the Soviet Union. An ethnic cleansing took place and both sides continue in division. Today no one lives in Aghdam. In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan returned to war for this breakaway republic, the worst fighting in over two decades.

Ethnic Armenian children play around the remains of a mosque in Shushi, Nagorno-Karabakh. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, Azeri’s and Armenians lived side-by-side for centuries until borders were redrawn, and ancient history of who’s land was who’s returned to divide people.

Remains of a statue in Aghdam, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Muslim graveyard located near Martakert in Nagorno-Karabakh. Buried here are Azeri's who once coexisted with ethnic Armenian's for centuries in this land located between Azerbaijan and Armenia, contested now for three decades.

Family members in anguish during the funeral of Yazidi spiritual leader, Hasan Hasanyan, at a Yazidi village outside Yerevan, Armenia. Persecuted in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region, Yazidis have found sanctuary in Armenia, the same when Armenians fled western Turkey between 1915-1923 into Syria and elsewhere.

A nationless flag of the Yazidi people rests on the coffin of their spiritual leader, Hasan Hasanyan, at the Yazidi Quba Mere Diwane temple in Aknalich, Armenia. Persecuted in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the region, Yazidis have found sanctuary in Armenia.

Hundreds of Rohingyan refugees joining a mass exodus from Myanmar arrive on homemade rafts to Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh, crossing the Naf River. More than 600 made the precarious trip on November 12, 2017, joining nearly one million refugees fleeing persecution in their homeland, the mountains behind them.

Arriving with children to Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh, after crossing the Naf River, fleeing persecution and death from Myanmar.

Mother with her three children, reaching land on Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh, with 600 other Rohingyan refugees.

A mother carrying her young child through the water after arriving on a near sinking raft to Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh, with 600 other Rohingyan refugees from Myanmar.

A man carries his ailing father on his back after arriving to Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh.

Hundreds of Rohingyan refugees, mostly children, wait for food to be distributed at Balu Khali 2 refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.

Children being beaten with a cane as they fight for food at the Balu Khali 2 refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.

Iman Hossen, 36, carries his 25 day old son, Mohammed Anas, for a health screening, arriving only hours earlier on a raft with his family into southern Bangladesh from Myanmar.

A farmer on his tractor passes Kinumi Yuakadu and his mother, Damiana Kavanha, plowing the land across highway that once was their ancestral land. The family has ived for two years along the side of a busy highway in the Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil, displaced from their ancestral land when framers forced them to leave the forest and their home.

Nearly 30,000 Palestinian labor migrations from the West Bank cram through the narrow confines of Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, a daily commute as if animals to work as laborers in Israel, a forced division between communities, the us and them.

Graffiti depicting Donald Trump painted on a separation wall in Bethlehem, Palestine, with the statement that the US president will also build another wall, further dividing America from its neighbor, Mexico. The same as the Israelis have divided, separated themselves from Palestinians in the West Bank.

Viewed from the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, a corrugated metal barrier between the two nations is dwarfed by four of eight prototypes for the wall that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration proposes to build. Walls are not just physical barriers—they also reinforce feelings of separation and alienation.

Unable to touch each other, families speak to their loved ones in Tijuana, from U.S./Mexico border near San Diego through a massive metal fence.

Saying goodbye before access to the separation wall at the U.S. border closes for the night at the U.S./Mexico border.

Maria Uwambaje lost four of her children during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, stands with Boniface Twagiramungu, who led killers to those children (left). Silas Nshimiryayo, 62, (right) killed 49-year-old Safina Mukabarisa’s brother and many members of her family. Boniface and Silas have sought forgiveness from Maria and Safina. A program led by the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding is helping perpetrators and victims heal their trauma, bringing peace through reconciliation.

Victim, Francois Nsabimana, 36, bystander, Agnes Uwimana, 41, sit in silence taking note to remember and heal from the genocide perpetrated in 1994 during a trauma healing workshop run by HROC and Karuna Center for Peace Building in the remote mountain village of Karongi, Rwanda.

Perpetrator, Theresphore, genocide survivor, Cassian, perpetrator, and bystander Jean Bosco Niyitegeka, sipping sodas takin a break during a therapy session on trust, carry pain and emotion from the genocide perpetrated against Tutsis in 1994 during a trauma healing workshop run by HROC and Karuna Center for Peace Building in the Ramiro, Rwanda.

In Ramiro, Rwanda, Cyrille Namubonye, a genocide perpetrator, walks with survivor Maria Nyirambarushimana during a Karuna Center for Peacebuilding workshop aimed at building trust and forgiveness. “In their process of healing, Cyrille realized he needs Maria, and Maria realized she needs Cyrille,” says Rosette Sebasoni, Karuna’s project manager there.