Ron Moscati
A native of Niagara Falls, NY, Ron Moscati has had a professional photographer’s front row seat to some of the greatest athletes, sporting and news events our region has ever seen – and he shared that view through his lens with the Western New York region and beyond for a career spanning over 41 years.
Ron earned his bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from Kent State University in 1954, served two years in the Army as a Signal Officer, attended graduate school at Syracuse University, worked briefly at his hometown Niagara Gazette, and, in 1957 joined the Buffalo Courier Express as a staff photographer.
Ron became the Courier’s Chief Photographer in 1972, remaining in the position until the paper closed in 1982. He then continued his career at The Buffalo News, retiring in 1995. In addition to his work in the print media, Ron also free-lanced as the Buffalo Sabres team photographer from their inception in 1970 and did similar work for the Buffalo Bills and baseball Bisons.
Through his work, Ron has proved his visual perspective for the Bills AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the Bills four straight Super Bowl appearances, the Stanley Cup “fog” game between the Sabres and Flyers, and O.J. Simpson’s record breaking run to surpass Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record. Ron was in Lake Placid when Team USA upset the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice”.
Other iconic news events captured by Ron include the collapse of Niagara Falls’ Prospect Point in 1954 (Life Magazine), the 1970 University at Buffalo and Allentown riots, the Attica Prison uprising in 1971 and the Blizzard of 1977.
And while such memories may fade over time, Ron’s image of the French Connection, taken during a 1975 playoff game, served as the inspiration for the statue of Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert, now displayed on the Alumni Plaza at the KeyBank Center.
During his career, Ron won dozens of local, state and national awards, including the Associated Press’s Bernard J. Kolenberg award, recognizing “excellence in news photography in New York State,” and he was nominated, and a finalist, for a Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography for a series of photographs at a City of Buffalo house fire in 1970, including the dramatic moment a firefighter dove out of a second story window head first to escape the flames.
