I wanted to get there early because I knew stuff would be popping off. The rally, the actual permitted rally at Lee Park, was not supposed to start until noon. But I couldn’t get there until 11:30.

By the time I parked my motorcycle, I had seen through the side streets that the police had blocked off roads. I could see protestors. I could see groups of people. When I was pulling into Charlottesville, I saw a column of what appeared to be Vanguard America, neo-Confederates, National Socialist Movement and other American fascists, as I like to call them generally, marching away from Lee Park, not toward it. I call them all American fascists, because that’s what they call themselves.

I spoke to (white nationalist) Matthew Heimbach in Kentucky in April and made some portraits of him for an article in the Guardian. As we were walking up a hill to make a picture, I said, "So, what's your background? What's your experience?"

He said, "Oh, I sold closet organizers to pay my way through college." I said, "Wow. You went from selling closet organizers to ... "

And he interrupted me and said, "Yeah, selling fascism to America." So, I take them at their word, let's put it that way.

So, I saw these American fascists walking away from Lee Park and marching in a somewhat organized column, carrying flags, carrying colors, carrying shields, and I thought that either Lee Park had been shut down or that it was overflowing. It turns out they'd shut it down. By the time I got to Lee Park, it was fenced off. There were Virginia State Police surrounding it. Nobody was inside the park, but there were tear-gas canisters on the street. There were people running.

One of the earliest things I saw and photographed was a young man probably 20 years old being chased out of the area by counter-protesters.

I could tell he was with the alt-right because he was wearing a uniform. He was wearing a white polo shirt and khakis. I had gone into the online forum for the event, looking at the comments, reading everything. These guys wanted to be in uniform, and the uniform for this event was either a white or blue polo shirt and khakis.