Category: Civil Wars

Outside an ornate iron gate, a Czechoslovakian army member stands elevated above a tightly packed crowd, palms raised in a gesture that reads as caution, appeal, or surrender to the mood of the street. Faces turn toward him from every angle, some intent and some skeptical, while the crush of bodies in the foreground suggests…

Anger and disbelief spill into the street as a young civilian raises his arm toward a soldier perched on an armored vehicle, the two locked in a tense, unequal exchange. Smoke hangs over the cobblestones and tram lines, turning an ordinary urban avenue into a corridor of occupation. The soldier’s rigid posture and heavy boots…

Three boys stand barefoot on a patch of scrubby ground, their faces set with the kind of stillness that war leaves behind. One holds a metal bucket; another grips a long, curved tool, everyday objects that feel out of place against the heavy silence of the scene. The camera keeps them in the foreground, yet…

Tall grass bends into a makeshift shelter as young refugees press themselves into the shadows near Aranyaprathet, Thailand, in 1979. The camera finds them at ground level, where a woven mat becomes a thin barrier between small bodies and the exposed earth, and where every leaf and stalk seems to matter. Faces are partly hidden,…

Raised rifles and rocket launchers slice into the sky as a tight crowd presses toward the camera, faces lit with grins and shouts. The mood in the frame is unmistakably triumphant—hands lifted, weapons aloft, bodies jostling in celebration—capturing the charged immediacy of a city changing hands. In the context of the title, the photograph reads…

Across the open square, the Hötel De Ville stands stripped to its shell, a long façade pierced by empty windows and crowned by jagged rooflines where the upper stories have vanished. Tall chimneys and fractured walls rise like monuments of soot and stone, while piles of rubble trace the building’s base. The photograph’s calm, steady…

Against a skyline torn open by artillery, Prussian troops gather inside the shattered works of Fort Issy near Versailles during the siege of Paris, on 1 February 1871. The long barrack-like building still holds its lines, while the adjacent wall is ripped into a jagged shell, its windows blasted into irregular holes. In the foreground,…

High on a blank wall in Derry, the remains of bold lettering—“YOU” and “ARE”—peek through layers of paint as a small group works to erase yesterday’s message. One figure balances on a ladder, roller raised, while another steadies himself below, all the action framed against a stark, pale background that turns every gesture into a…

In an open earthen pit, forensic specialists work shoulder to shoulder in heavy boots and gloves, bending over a tangled mound of remains and soil. Their careful postures, small tools, and measured movements suggest the methodical pace of an exhumation, where every fragment can become evidence. The scene is grimly practical: mud, torn fabric, and…

Morning fog hangs low over a Sarajevo cemetery, turning the skyline into soft silhouettes while the ground in the foreground looks newly heaped and uneven. Dozens of simple wooden markers rise from the fresh earth, some leaning slightly, their pale surfaces catching the thin winter light. At the center, a lone woman in a dark…