I ended up doing something like this for AngularJS in case someone stumbles across this question:
const imageElem = angular.element('#awardImg');
if (imageElem[0].files[0])
vm.award.imageElem = imageElem;
vm.award.image = imageElem[0].files[0];
And then:
if (vm.award.imageElem)
$('#awardImg').replaceWith(vm.award.imageElem);
delete vm.award.imageElem;