Kicked by Douglas Bruce.
Apparently being kicked by Republican Douglas Bruce was a good learning experience for photographer Javier Manzano, who now is winning awards for his pictures in war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
You might remember that 2008 hubbub. Bruce, who was appointed to a fill a vacancy in the House, was trying to delay his swearing in as a state representative. Newspaper photographers and TV cameramen were focused on him when the legendary Colorado Springs anti-tax man let loose against Manzano, a photographer for the Rocky Mountain News.
I lost track of Manzano after the Rocky closed in 2009, but yesterday I was looking at the photo blog on the Denver Post’s web site of the World Press Photo Contest winners. I couldn’t believe it when I read the cutline for the fourth photo:
World Press Photo 3rd prize stories Spot News, Javier Manzano. Two Syrian rebels take sniper positions at the heavily contested neighborhood of Karmal Jabl in central Aleppo on October 18, 2012, … AFP PHOTO/JAVIER Manzano/AFP/Getty Images
Manzano’s built up quite the résumé since his days taking pictures of Colorado lawmakers, of Bruce on that day and for the Rocky’s Citizen Legislator series.
In many ways, Bruce’s kick turned out to be the beginning of the end for him. His fellow Republicans openly criticized him. Bruce lost his primary bid that August. The “Big Three” ballot measures that he tried to pretend he had nothing do with failed in the 2010 election. And last year, he did time at the Denver Jail after being convicted of tax evasion.