About Tom Haskell

Tom Haskell was born and raised in Cortland, New York, a small city near Syracuse. He was educated at St. Mary’s School and graduated from Cortland High School in 1967. During his teenage years, he joined the American Federation of Musicians and began a musical career that would continue until 1988. The highlight of the music part of his life was in 1969 album release on ABC Records under the creative direction of Neil Diamond.

Tom graduated from Tompkins Cortland Community College in 1975 and then served served as an Adjunct Professor in their music department for 12 years. It was during this time that his attention turned to his long time hobby of photography. In addition to teaching, he began working for a local portrait studio and freelancing as a photographer.

In 1988, Tom married a high school friend and classmate, left Central New York and moved to Washington, DC, where he established his own photography business, Tom Haskell Photoworks. The new business specialized in public relations and event photography which included presidential events with Presidents Reagan and Bush.

In 1992 his wife, Catherine Bertini, was appointed to head the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and they moved to the WFP Headquarters city of Rome, Italy. Working as a volunteer, he served as the chief field photographer for WFP and he visited more than 40 countries including North Korea, Iraq, China, Sudan, Rwanda, Angola, Sierra Leone and Kosovo. Tom said, "This is a long way from the White House but it feels like home to me." His images, including a Newsweek cover photo, have been used by many major newspapers and magazines in the world including: Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Fortune, Family Circle, Parade, La Tribuna (Spain), Der Spiegel (Germany), Famiglia Cristiana (Italy), Africa Watch (Kenya), The Times of London (England), The Financial Times (England), Der Zeit (Germany), China Daily (China), and the news agencies of Reuters, Associated Press and Corbis-Sygma. His work has also been published in several hard and soft cover books by the United Nations, the UN World Food Programme, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in a SAP advertisement, and in Internet fundraising campaigns. His work has been shown in galleries in Rome, Cortland, Albany, Des Moines, Rochester, and New York City.

Tom Haskell returned to Cortland in 2002 and passed away there in 2012.