R.I.P. Boris Spremo

by TPL_BlogsAttention: This post is over 3 years old and the information may be out of date.August 23, 2017

Boris Spremo was a news photographer, born on October 20, 1935, in Susak, Yugoslavia and died yesterday in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 81.

Spremo graduated from Belgrade’s Cinematographic Institute, and almost immediately immigrated to Canada in 1957, settling in Toronto.

In 1962, he joined the staff of the Globe and Mail but in 1966 left for a position with the Toronto Star, where he remained for over 30 years.

Spremo photographed dramatic news events including the Vietnam War and the plight of Kurdish refugees during the Iraq War in 1991.

Boris was also well known for his portraiture of entertainers, royalty and politicians as well as many stunning images of Toronto, notably, his death defying photographs of the construction of CN Tower in 1974.

Spremo’s photographs have been published in books dedicated to his work, including Boris Spremo: Twenty Years of Photojournalism (1985) and Boris Spremo and His Camera Look at Toronto (1967).

Toronto Public Library is honored to house many of Spremo’s photographs as part of our Toronto Star Photo Archive, housed in the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre at Toronto Reference Library.

We are very pleased to share some digitized versions of his work from our Digital Archive in this blog, which is intended to highlight the wide variety of subject matter Mr. Spremo captured throughout his career. Or view all digitized photos by Boris Spremo.

Royalty

Boris Royalty 1Princess Diana, Halifax, 1983

Boris Royalty 2Princess Diana and Pierre Trudeau, 1983

Boris Royalty 3Charles, Prince of Wales, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, 1996

Boris Royalty 4Royal Family at the Princess of Wales Funeral, 1997

Sports

Boris Spremo Sports 1Wayne Gretzky, 1990

Boris Spremo Sports 2Clyde Gray of Toronto, Canadian and Commonwealth welterweight boxing champ, 1973

Boris Spremo Sports 3$450,000: That’s what jockey Sandy Hawley expects to earn this year. 1973.

Boris Spremo Sports 4Steve Fonyo, 5 AM, 20 miles east of Summit, 1985

Boris Spremo Sports 5Jim Harrison, Maple Leaf centre, scrambles for puck with Andre Boudrias of St. Louis Blues, 1969

Boris Spremo Sports 6The official opening of the dome ushered in a new era for the followers of sports in Toronto, 1989

Politicians

Boris Spremo Politicians 1Mikhail Gorbachev and Brian Mulroney, 1990

Boris Spremo Politicians 2Barbara Hall, 1994

Boris Spremo Politicians 3Metro chairman Paul Godfrey, 1973

Boris Spremo Politicians 4Mike Harris, 1997

Boris Spremo Politicians 5Ambassador Averell Harriman: Speaking at Canadian Press annual dinner, 1966

Boris Spremo Politicians 6Mimico Mayor Hugh Griggs, 1966

Toronto

Boris Spremo Toronto 1CN Tower construction, 1974

Boris Spremo Toronto 2While thousands of people watched yesterday, the flashing red light atop the 1,815-foot-high CN Tower was replaced with a 200,000-candlepower flashing strobe light, 1982

Boris Spremo Toronto 3The attractiveness of the City Hall complex puts into sharp focus what we lack in other parts of the city, 1972

Boris Spremo Toronto 4Workmen erecting the steel base for the new Top of Toronto restaurant at the Sky Pod level last year grinned back at photographer Spremo balanced on a steel girder just above them, 1974