Phillip Walter Wellman awarded prize by Military Reporters & Editors
WASHINGTON — During its annual conference for journalists who cover the military, Military Reporters & Editors presented awards to winners of its 2025 MRE Journalism Contest. Phillip Walter Wellman of Stars and Stripes earns MRE’s Honorable Mention for Photojournalism award for visual media.
Award Summary
Photograph: Ceo Bauer, Stars and Stripes published 11/28/2024
Prize Category: Honorable Mention Photojournalism, Visual journalism media published in traditional print or online.
Best photography on a single topic related to the military, defense or veterans news or war coverage.
Judges’ Comments:
Ceo Bauer returned to France at the age of 101, where in 1944 he fought to liberate the city of Metz. He spent a couple weeks traveling and speaking across Lorraine as part of anniversary events. Photographer Phillip Walter Wellman captured this image near the end of several days in the region, and even without reading this description of Bauer, his personality shines through in the portrait: proud, personable, fun, and a staunch believer in the trans-Atlantic alliance his generation helped forge.
Winning Photograph
Journalist Biography
Phillip Walter Wellman
Phillip Walter Wellman is a reporter and photographer for Stars and Stripes, currently based in Germany. From 2016 to 2021, he was stationed in Kabul, where he covered the war in Afghanistan for the newspaper. His work was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in 2022, and in 2020, his photography was featured in the
Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London. Originally from Michigan, he holds an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics.