The Wandering Photographer

Tony Spina: Photojournalist.

Tony Spina Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.

Bourke-White, Eisenstaedt, Adams, Cartier-Bresson; some of the greatest photojournalist of all time. To those add the name Spina, Tony Spina. Tony Spina was a photographer for the Detroit Free Press during the hey-day of photojuornalism. 

Born in 1914, Spina joined the Free Press in 1944. In 1952, he was appointed Chief Photographer and remained in that position until his retirement in the late 1980s. Spina's photography was brilliant. he brought the city and nation to us each morning, sometimes gritty, sometimes poignant, some times gentle, always important and informative. 

 Unlike today, during the 50s, 60s and 70s, local papers brought us great phoptojournalism daily. Breaking news was featured thoughout the paper and the back page was reserved for feature photography of the highest quality. 

I became a fan of Spina when I was a Free Press carrier in the mid 1960s.

 While scouring my bookshelves for something to read one afternoon, I came across a copy of  Spina's book On Assignment:Projects in Photojournalism. In the book Spina describes a number of assignments he was tasked by the Free Press. He describes how he went about completeing each assignment including planning, gear, technique and result. It gives a wonderful insight into the life of a press photographer. The volume is long out of print but it can often be found in your public library, especially in the Detroit area.

A couple examples of his work are presented below.

Tony Spina Collection,Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Spina was called into the office early in the morning on July 23, 1967. What some call a riot, and others call a rebellion, broke out along 12th Street in the City of Detroit. Spina describes outfitting himself with a helmet marked PRESS, a pair of goggles, two Nikon F camera bodies and two lenses, 35mm and 85-200mm. He proceeded to walk down the street amongst the chaos, shooting images as he went. 

The image above of a Michigan National Guardsman, captures, in Spina's words, "the event's tension and fear." This photo came to symbolize the events of that dark week in July. It ran in papers across the country and around the world. It is a perfect example the power of photojournalism. 

Tony Spina Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

While the so-called riots of 67 divided the city, an event just a year and three monthes later brought us back together and Spina brought us images that helped bridge the divide.

In 1968 the Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant and found themselves facing the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Tony Spina was there to capture the action. Down three games to one, the Tigers entered game five for a do-or-die game.

Spina captured this photo of the collision at home plate between St. Louis left fielder Lou Brock and Detroit catcher Bill Freehan. Brock was out and the Tigers went on to win games six and seven taking home the world championship. This is the photo that greeted us in the morning paper.

It was photos like these that brought the world to our door. Unfortunately, news papers no longer hightlight photography as they once did. There are still great photographers travelling the world to bring us images of war, sports and politics; but so often the local touch has been lost since so many photojournalists today are freelancers or working for a wire service. They do great work but we don't know them the way we new the Tony Spinas of the world.

Tony Spina's lifetime of work is archived at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. Many of his photographs can be viewed on the web at www.reuther.wayne.edu/image/tid/540

I wish to thank the Walter P.Reuther Library at WSU for their kind permission to use these photos in my blog. 

Photo Rights: All rights, including those of further reproduction and/or publication, are reserved in full by the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.  Under no circumstances can the user distribute the image(s).  All image inquiries are to be forwarded to the Walter P. Reuther Library's Audiovisual Department.  Photographic reproductions may be protected by U.S. copyright law (U.S. Title 17).  The user is fully responsible for copyright infringement.

Sources:

• Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University
• Spina, Tony, On Assignment: Projects in Photojournalism Amphoto Books, 1982.
• The Tony Spina Collection at Roland Young Photography

 

Going Back to College: Update

I promised I’d write occasional updates about my adventure returning to graduate school at Wayne State University after all these years. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am returning to finish a Masters in History that I started about ten years ago. Well, it’s been about two weeks now and there are things to report.

You may have noticed that I didn’t write a blog post last week. Frankly the workload is larger than I expected and I just didn’t have time to write anything. It appears that this blog is going to drop to one or two posts per week, most likely a post on Wednesday and, with any luck, a Photo Friday post. The blog will still be photography centered but I will try to write a monthly blog post about my experiences at school. 

 Getting back into the academic world has been both interesting and a bit frightening. The first thing that happened was that one of the classes that I registered for was cancelled and I had to find something else to take. Fortunately I found another course that, it turns out, should be very interesting and valuable. Originally I planned to take a course in “Colonial America” and a second course in the “Early American Republic”. The Early Republic course was cancelled but I was able to replace it with a class in “Women in U.S. Life and Thought.” I’m really excited about both classes.

The “Women” class is particularly interesting because it is from a field of study (Women’s History) that barely existed when I first went off to college in 1971. Certainly if there was such a class available it would not be near as rich and complete as this one seems to be so far. The “Colonial” presents a lot of new scholarship and a brand new way of looking at the colonial world. Far from being stagnant the study of history is rich and diverse. I especially enjoy being able to study a subject in-depth instead of in a rushed survey that are common at the undergraduate level. 

The one thing that gives me pause is the need to get back into very serious writing. Between the two courses I have to write six short papers and two quite extensive ones. All together they will likely total in excess of 10,000 words. It has been a long time since I have written a long and serious paper and I know these papers are going to take some time, if for no other reason than that I am out of practice (you can probably tell from this run on sentence). I’m actually happy that I have the six short ones to do first, since they will allow me to get back into the real writing mode.

I am really pleased to be on campus during the day as it allows me access to opportunities for more informal educational experiences. Many free lectures and presentations are available and both students and faculty take advantage of them. Last week I had the chance to attend a mini-seminar presented by Rogers Smith PhD. of the University of Pennsylvania. We had the opportunity to discuss Dr. Smith’s paper delving into Equality and Differentiated Citizenship. Being able to sit around a table with fellow students and faculty from different departments having an intelligent discourse about important issues is a gratifying experience.  I intend to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as I can.

All in all it has been a pretty good start. I am thoroughly enjoying myself, and I am feeling pretty good about this adventure.

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Back to School

If you’ve read my “about” page (you do read those, don’t you?) you know that I am about to embark on an educational journey that will hopefully lead to a Master of Arts in History.  The question of course is what could possibly have made me decide to return to school at 56 years old and to study history of all things?

Circumstances dictate strange things these days.  I was a “non-traditional” student in the past and it appears I am going to be one again.  Seventeen years after dropping out of college, I returned to Wayne State University to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1997 at the age of 45 (all the while working full time as an automotive engineer).  Within a year or so, I found myself bored, so I decided to start working on a MA in History “just for fun.”  It turns out that working full time and completing a MA is somewhat incompatible, so I put aside school figuring I might go back after I retire.

Page forward about nine years to October 2009, I find myself downsized, along with several thousand other engineers, with few prospects for reasonable work. 

I stopped in at my local community college and met with a counselor.  Under the Trade Readjustment Act I am eligible for training money, but only for specific jobs such as health care and truck driving.  None of those hold much interest for me at this time in my life.  The counselor recommended that I return to Wayne State and complete that MA. 

The more I thought about it the more it made some kind of weird sense.  No, the state would not pay for it, but I have enough saved to cover tuition myself.  No there aren’t a plethora of jobs in history out there, but by the time I finish, we will hopefully be well on our way out of this crisis and I will find some meaningful work.  This will also give me the opportunity to do some part-time teaching in my retirement which is fast approaching.

I do face this new challenge with some trepidation.  I finished my BA in a program that was largely made up of older (40+) student so I fit right in.  My earlier work on the MA was at night, so at least some of the students were close to my age, mostly working high school teachers.  Attending classes during the day means that I am likely to be one of oldest students in class.  In fact I might just be older that some of my professors. 

I am really looking forward to getting started and back into the academic world.  It will feel good to be doing something intellectual and worthwhile, at the same time working hard to accomplish something that as a mediocre high school student I never imagined doing. 

My major area of study is Early American History (to 1877) with an emphasis in the early republic.  My minor area is African History.  I completed the course work in African History during my time at Wayne last decade and hopefully most of those credits will carry over and I won’t have to repeat very much course work.  I have always had an interest in history and historical figures and this will give me a chance to explore that body of knowledge in a more formal way than I have in the past.

The focus of this blog is still going to be photography but look here for occasional articles about topics in history and my new educational adventure.

Wish me luck!

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved