Tony Spina

Inducted 1989

Tony Spina

chief photographer, Detroit Free Press

Tony Spina was born in Detroit and is a graduate of the Detroit Institute of Technology. He was the chief photographer of the Detroit Free Press and special assistant to the managing editor. During his 44 years at the Free Press, Spina received more than 450 state, national and international awards for his photography. The impressive list includes the Sprague Memorial Award from the National Press Photographers Association. He also shared a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Free Press in 1968 for its coverage of the Detroit riots. Spina was also the author of a weekly photo column, which appeared in the Free Press and more than 200 other newspapers. His assignments have included photographing eight U.S. presidents and four popes. He is known for his unique faculty to combine art and a strong sense of journalism in his photographs. His pictures have been displayed in more than 80 exhibitions. In 1964, 100 of Spina’s photographs of the Vatican were exhibited worldwide. A leader not only to his profession, but to the entire industry, Spina was the first photojournalist to be inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. David Lawrence, Jr., publisher and chairman of the Detroit Free Press, commented: “More than anything else, the easy measure of Tony’s contributions can be taken by the awards presented him by his peers.”