One woman's passionate battle for justice. Letizia Battaglia's story, her vision of Sicily, and her fight for justice against the Mafia as revealed in this biographical monograph is as stunning as it is heroic. This W. Eugene Smith Award-winning photographer demonstrates photography's power to serve as both a weapon and a voice for the silent majority. After years of fighting for the life of her troubled city of Palermo-as a photographer, deputy councilwoman, ecological activist, defender of women's rights, and defender of human rights-Battaglia continues the battle with the fierce passion, intelligence, and vision for which she is known. Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom juxtaposes iconic pictures of the everyday joy, suffering, and vitality of the Palermitani with images showing the effects of the Mafia predators who have controlled much of the city for so long. Along with an intimate profile of the photographer by Melissa Harris, Alexander Stille chronicles Battaglia's fight against the Mafia, putting her photographs in the context of Palermo in the 1980s and '90s. Renate Siebert addresses the heretofore unexplored role of women and the Mafia in her essay. Magazine editor Simona Mafei contributes an essay about her work with Battaglia.

Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom : Photographs of Sicily

Arts & Photography

STILLE, ALEXANDER

Battaglia, Letizia

Photography & Video

Aperture

Diario

Castelvecchi

Mario Puzo wrote a book and Coppola made a film about the Mafia, but only Letizia Battaglia told the real story, the plain, harsh story. She told Vice that her mission was “to document everything that acted as testimony against the Mafia.” Drago is proud to announce its new project: an anthology, curated by Paolo Falcone, of Letizia Battaglia’s extraordinary photographic work, from 1971 to 2016. Letizia Battaglia (Palermo, 1935) is a Sicilian photographer and photojournalist. Although her photos document a wide spectrum of Sicilian life, she is best known for her work on the Mafia. Over the years, Battaglia took some 600,000 images whilst documenting the ferocious internal war of the Mafia, and its assault on civil society. Battaglia sometimes found herself at the scene of four or five different murders in a single day. In a recent interview with CNN, Battaglia claimed that her “archives are full of blood” interspersed with images that capture the “immense beauty” of Sicily. The Daily Beast wrote that her pictures capture “Mafia judges and police officers, many dead in their cars with blood so fresh it glimmers like water.” Yet some present daily Sicilian life with “young girls playing on the cobbled streets and wealthy women in fur collars sipping champagne.” A large selection of her iconic black and white images will be presented in the catalogue, guiding the reader along a journey into one of post-war Italy’s darkest periods. Drawing from Battaglia’s personal archive the book also includes more recent projects. It offers a unique approach to her genre-defining photography (often linked to that of American ‘crime’ photographer Weegee) and a chance to reflect on the role of photography as an individual and collective means for taking action, bearing witness, providing evidence and documenting history.

Letizia Battaglia: Anthology

Drago Arts & Communication

Drago is delighted to feature Letizia Battaglia for the second time following the success of her Anthology. The Sicilian photographer’s new book, Just For Passion, catalogues her exhibition at Rome’s MAXXI National Museum of the 21st Century Arts. The book explores the incredible scope and character of Letizia Battaglia’s work. With over one hundred photographs including previously unpublished works, the collection captures an intimate insight into the ambivalence of Italian life, from harrowing images of the Mafia to beautiful portraits of the women and children of Palermo. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Battaglia explained that through the duality of her work, she aimed to “to denounce corruption and to exalt beauty.” Contributors include the Dean of the International Centre of Photography in New York, Fred Ritchin; curator, Paolo Falcone; journalist, Attilio Bolzoni; photography critic, Giovanna Calvenzi; the Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando; Palermo’s Anti-Mafia Magistrate, Franca Imbergamo; the President of the MAXXI Museum, Giovanna Melandri and the Museum’s Director of Architecture, Margherita Guccione.

Just for Passion

Drago Arts & Comm

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