News

Soldier’s imagery from Iraq dominates All-Army Photo Contest
Date Posted: 3/17/2006

By Tim Hipps
USACFSC Public Affairs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Soldier deployed in Iraq discovered the beauty of digital photography and dominated the 2005 All-Army Photography Contest.

"Jovial Peek” by Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley

Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach mail ordered a digital single-lens-reflex camera from New York to the Middle East and all but swapped munitions for lenses to document his Army unit’s humanitarian missions.

“I would either shoot with my machine gun or my camera, whichever was useful at the time,” he said.

Sendelbach, a 27-year-old chemical operations specialist stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., earned seven awards totaling $1,500 as the most-decorated contestant in the Army’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation-sponsored event. His other two entries received honorable mentions.

Master Sgt. Clayton Wolfinbarger of U.S. Army Garrison-Michigan at Selfridge won three first-place awards. Richard Bumgardner of Heidelberg, Germany, claimed a pair of firsts and two seconds in the civilian division.

Sendelbach cherished shooting from atop Humvees, where he had a 360-degree view of Iraq and its people.

“I was constantly taking photos on every mission,” he said. “My company commander took notice and eventually the battalion commander took notice and they wanted me to make a slide show.”

"Waiting for Dad” by Amber Mooney, Fort Carson

That project, combined with video footage, earned Sendelbach first-place honors in the short-film category of the 2004 All-Army Photography Contest. Shortly thereafter, he was assigned to chronicle Soldiers building schools, power plants, and hosting neighborhood advisory meetings.

“The photos showed the battalion what we were actually doing on the ground,” Sendelbach said. “Since they didn’t have a combat camera guy dedicated to the battalion, I became the combat camera guy. I was able to focus on something I loved doing.

“On my down time, I took more artistic shots while walking around the area, but most of the time I was just riding around on the top of a Humvee with my M-240 machine gun in front of me and my camera hanging off my shoulder. I usually volunteered to be the gunner because I could get a good view of everything.”

Sendelbach took a few of his winning photos while on leave in Europe after serving in Iraq from March 18, 2003 through July 7, 2004. His “Mouse’s Eye View,” taken inside St. Peter’s Basilica, received first-place honors in the military black and white place category. He also took first place in color military life with “Gunslinger,” a time-exposure photo made in Iraq.

"Past Time” by Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley

“Past time,” which received an honorable mention in the color military life category, is a shot of a Soldier in color reading a book aboard a C-17 aircraft while surrounded by sleeping troops, who appear in black and white.

“Nobody was awake but that one guy,” Sendelbach said. “Everybody else was passed out all over the floor and in the seats and he was in-depth reading this book, so I thought I would get a shot of that. If I had left it completely color or black and white, I don’t think people would have noticed him as easily. So I went into Photoshop and basically de-saturated all of the color around him so the first thing your eye notices is this guy just sitting there reading while everyone else is passed out asleep.”

Competition groups included monochrome prints, color prints and short films (video clips limited to 6 minutes). The print categories were people, place, object, experimental (altered prints) and military life. First-place winners received $300, runners-up $200, and third places earned $100. Soldiers, family members and Army civilians entered 1,107 photos.

The judges were George Mason University’s Assistant Professor of Digital Arts Andrew McPherson, a photographer, video and multimedia installation artist; D.C. Art News Publisher F. Lennox Campello, an award-winning artist; and award-winning photographer Ralph Nordenhold of the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center’s Strategic Planning directorate.

2005 All-Army Photography Contest

Listed are the top three award winners in each category of the 2005 All-Army Photography Contest with contest place, military rank, photographer’s name, installation, and title of entry:

Military Division

Monochrome people: 1. Spc. Stephen Kretsinger, Fort Carson, Colo., The Eyes; 2. Chief Warrant Officer Mark Thompson, Stuttgart, Germany, International Bride; 3. Spc. Jeff Bryant, Fort Meade, Md., Motherly Pride.

Monochrome place: 1. Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Mouses Eye View; 2. Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Eviscerator, 3. Master Sgt. Gregory Alley, West Point, N.Y., Beat Navy House.

"Windsurfing” by Master Sgt. Clayton Wolfinbarger, Selfridge

Monochrome object: 1. Master Sgt. Clayton Wolfinbarger, Selfridge, Mich., Stairway; 2. Cadet Kyle Jerichow, West Point, N.Y., Some Holocaust Survivors Live Forever; 3. Master Sgt. Gregory Alley, West Point, N.Y., Self portrait.

Monochrome experimental: 1. Master Sgt. Clayton Wolfinbarger, Selfridge, Mich., Windsurfing; 2. Cadet Amie Foster, West Point, N.Y., Under Brush; 3. Staff Sgt. La Trice Jefferson, Fort Polk, La., NCO Helping Soldiers.

Monochrome military life: 1. Master Sgt. Celia Feller, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, A Soldiers Cemetery; 2. Cpl. Milan Obradovic, Selfridge, Mich., Night Surveilance; 3. Cadet Antony Vargas, West Point, N.Y., Into the Uncertain.

Color place: 1. Capt. Ransom Green, Fort Lee, Va., Shadow Family; 2. Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Walking into Oblivion; 3. Master Sgt. Munnaf Joarder, Selfridge, Mich., Flood.

Color object: 1. First Lt. Bert Uyenco, Camp Casey, Korea, Lead Free Texaco; 2. Chief Warrant Officer Scott Diaz, Korea, Brushes; 3. Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Current.

Color people: 1. Cadet Kyle Jerichow, West Point, N.Y., Every Victim of the Holocaust has a Face; 2. Sgt. Nicholas Sendlbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Malevolent Profile; 3. Capt. David Harvey, Stuttgart, Germany, Senegalese Girl.

Color military life: 1. Sgt. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., Gunslinger; 2. Nicholas Sendelbach, Fort Riley, Kan., And the Rush Comes Back; 3. Cpl. Milan Obradovie, Selfridge, Mich., Portrait of a Landing.

"Birds” by Richard Bumgardner, Heidelberg

Color experimental: 1. Master Sgt. Clayton Wolfinbarger, Selfridge, Mich., For Sale or Trade; 2. Sgt. 1st Class Johnancharles Boers, Fort Meade, Md., American Pride; 3. Staff Sgt. Michael Warner, Hohenfels, Germany, Apple.

Short film: 1. 1st Lt. John Prettyman, Fort Riley, Kan., OIF: Another Day; 2. Spc. Derrick Williams, Fort Polk, La., Skate; 3. Martha Bravo-Cullen, Fort Huachuca, Ariz., He Ordered a Martini.

Civilian Division

Monochrome people: 1. Theresa Grimm, Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Little Miss in Black and White; 2. Richard Bumgardner, Heidelberg, Germany, Birds; 3. Angela Duggan, Korea, Sunrise.

Monochrome place: 1. Richard Bumgardner, Heidelberg, Germany, Mall; 2. Phillip Lundman, Selfridge, Mich., Quincy Mine; 3. Phillip Lundman, Selfridge, Mich., The Old Shack.

Monochrome object: 1. Richard Bumgardner, Heidelberg, Germany, Make a Wish; 2. Charles Badalati, Stuttgart, Germany, Ballet Flower; 3. Christopher Mushenski, Selfridge, Mich., The Anvil.

Monochrome military life: 1. Amber Mooney, Fort Carson, Colo., Waiting for Dad; 2. Heather Eggar, Fort Riley, Kan., Deployment Last Touch; 3. Robert LaPolice, Selfridge, Mich., Out on a Wing.

Monochrome experimental: 1. Merry Thaden, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., The Widows Mite; 2. Jeffery White, Selfridge, Mich., Dreaming of Far Away Places; 3. Merry Thaden, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Allegria.

Color people: 1. Joshua Jones, Fort Riley, Kan., Sam; 2. Julie Rooney, Korea, Cuna Women with Child; 3. Teresa Brodsky, Selfridge, Mich., Future Endeavors.

Color place: 1. John Swanson, Selfridge, Mich., Cutting the Grass; 2. Jeffery White, Selfridge, Mich., High Desert Patriot; 3. Marilyn Koprowski, Korea, Han River-Seoul.

Color object: 1. Jeffery White, Selfridge, Mich., Koy; 2. Jessica Denham, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., 3. Kristy Horn, Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Love on the Beach.

Color military life: 1. Eric Aubrey, Selfridge, Mich., Dusty Mary; 2. John Swanson, Selfridge, Mich., F-16 over Great Lakes; 3. Mike Knaggs, West Point, N.Y., Snow Covered Hummers.

Color experimental: 1. William Pitts, Selfridge, Mich., Greenhouse Spirits; 2. Richard Bumgardner, Heidelberg, Germany, Armageddon; 3. Winnie Bagley, Fort Campbell, Ky., Vase and Flowers.

Short film: 1. Thomas M. Hare II, Fort Campbell, Ky., Sony-Body Help Me; 2. Thomas M. Hare II, Fort Campbell, Ky., Chalk Full of Truth; 3. Kaitlyn Fox, West Point, N.Y., Unemployed.