Perhaps more than any other group of people, our servicemen and women get the opportunity to visit new places, interact with different cultures, see the world, and most importantly, they get the chance to photograph it all. But what happens to these thousands (or millions) of photos? Do they get deleted once the card in the camera is full? Transferred to a hard drive, never to be seen again? Or – if lucky, – do they get to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame on social media?

Recognizing that the men and women of the U.S. military have sacrificed so much for the rest of us, the team at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP) in Missoula, Montana, created their U.S. Armed Services Photo Contest. The goal of this contest is to shine the light on our country’s Veterans and service members while encouraging the sharing of their images, and foster their passion for photography. It is important to note that this is not just about showing images of military life, combat, tanks and camo. Rather, it is more about celebrating each individual photographer and their personal interests and a vision as unique as they are.

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Veterans and active duty service members can submit their images into three categories: nature, people and action. Each category will have a first, second and third place winner as determined by a rather impressive team of guest judges who have committed to this contest. One grand prize winner will be chosen from the three first place finishers.

The guest judges include 2015 Military Photographer of the Year Kenny Holston, editor of the National Press Photographers Association Tom Burton and RMSP graduate and 30-year Veteran of the United States Marine Corps Kevin Black. Each of these accomplished photographers have a lot to offer and bring a ton of experience to the table. The contest will conclude at midnight on May 31 and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

In February 2017, RMSP concluded their third annual high school photo contest that resulted in nearly 53,000 images being submitted by over 3,400 students from 45 states and 16 countries. With the creation of their U.S. Armed Services Photo Contest, RMSP hopes to duplicate an even higher level of engagement and photographic interest with its .S. Armed Services Photo Contest

To learn more about RMSP’s 2017 U.S. Armed Services Photo Contest, and to submit your images, please click here.


About the author: Andy Kemmis is with the Rocky Mountain School of Photography

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One Comment

  1. Shari Malik June 4, 2017 at 04:42

    This is the good way to show the images of veteran and trend give a moral boost to the members. It’s also show the positive face about it.

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