You name it and he’s done it as a photographer! A graduate of Belgrade’s Cinematographic Institute, Boris Spremo was born of ethnic Serb origin in former Yugoslavia, immigrating to Canada, 1957. After several years freelancing, he gained employment with The Globe and Mail, 1962, before joining The Toronto Star, 1966. For the past 34 years, Boris Spremo has won over 280 major national and international awards as a photojournalist. He was the first Canadian to capture a First Prize Gold Medal (1966) in the World Press Photo Competitions held at The Hague. A four-time National Newspaper Award winner, Boris Spremo has won the Canadian Press Picture-of-the-Month Award 18 times. The Toronto Fire Fighters have honoured Boris with Best Picture of the Year Awards three times, and the Toronto Police have awarded Boris the Best Picture of the Year Award on four separate occasions. His works have been published in some of the world’s best-known magazines: Life, Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest, The National Enquirer, and Maclean’s. In the course of his many world-wide assignments, Mr. Spremo was picked to accompany Prime Minister Trudeau on official state visits through South East Asia, the Soviet Union, and to Latin America. He has photographed some of the 20th century’s most prominent personalities including The Royal Family, Pope Paul II, Charles de Gaulle, Premier Kosygin, Haile Selassie, Fidel Castro, The Beatles, Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, among others. He has covered 30 Royal Tours, the ’86 World Cup Soccer, the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy, the War in Vietnam, Canada’s Peacekeeping troops abroad, hostilities in Northern Ireland, Israel, the Kurds in Turkey and Iran, the funeral of Princess Diana and famine in Ethiopia. One of the keen eyes of the 20th century, Boris Spremo was made a Member of the Order of Canada, 1998, for his work as a photojournalist. In this view, The Toronto Star photographer takes time out while on location in El Salvador. [Photo, courtesy Boris Spremo]