See the Powerful Photos From a Pageant for Female Veterans

The female veterans go to Washington...It's inspiring to see so much beauty and courage♡
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War is not glamorous. How then do you marry the pageantry of a beauty competition with the chaotic aftermath of combat? But the Ms. Veteran America Competition, now in its sixth year, does just that. It offers a platform for women veterans to celebrate their “courage in combat” while simultaneously embracing their femininity.
For American photographer Peter Van Agtmael, who documented this year’s event held in Washington D.C., it was this strange, swirling paradox that first drew him in. Van Agtmael has spent the last 12 years photographing America at war, as well as the aftermath back home. His visceral, often painful journey into society’s inner soul frequently reflects on its acute contradictions. “What attracted me [about the competition] is that you’re taking two seemingly polar opposite worlds and kind of very conspicuously mashing them together,” he tells TIME. “But how do you do this in a thoughtful and complex way?”

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