November 2025
Now in the spotlight, Letizia Battaglia is being celebrated this year at the Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles with a major exhibition. As part of PhotoSaintGermain, the Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès has chosen to present the photographs of Battaglia and Zecchin, a couple of photojournalists who covered the 1980s, a dark period in Sicily under the grip of the Cosa Nostra.
This exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Letizia Battaglia Archives, Palermo, and Franco Zecchin.
The arrest of ferocious mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella, Palerme 1979. Photogaph by Letizia Battaglia ©Archivio Letizia Battaglia
An exceptional woman, passionate, committed, driven by an ideal of justice and democracy, Letizia Battaglia fought the mafia, choosing her camera as her weapon. In 1975, she met Franco Zecchin, and from then on they worked as a couple for the national press (notably L'Ora) and international media, offering their perspective on Palermo society ravaged by murders and mafia vendettas. Sicily was then living under the shadow of bloody violence caused by this "second Mafia war " (1981-1992), the trial of 100 mafia members, and the vendetta that led to the deaths of judges Falcone and Borsellino. Aware that their camera was a powerful weapon, the couple wanted to raise public awareness of the corruption that was plaguing the political sphere and the business world, allowing the mafia to thrive. They documented not only news stories and trials, but also city council meetings, shows, cultural events, and sporting events in order to faithfully portray the inner workings of this stranglehold.
Far from focusing solely on crime and the mafia, the exhibition takes a sensitive look at the social, economic, and cultural situation in Sicily at that time: street murders and trials, portraits of Palermitans in the privacy of their homes, the permanence of the sacred through religious processions, images of the aristocracy rubbing shoulders with poverty, and scenes of everyday life of young people in search of joy and love contrast sharply with death and violence.
The power of Letizia Battaglia and Franco Zecchin's photographs lies in the contrast between death intruding on life, joy intruding on sadness, and everyday life colliding with the shock of reality.
The forty black-and-white photographs on display are vintage prints from 1970 to 1990. Battaglia and Zecchin each bring their own perspective to their era, and it is this reciprocity of vision that is evident in the exhibition.
Born in Palermo, Letizia Battaglia (1935-2022) was one of the first female photojournalists to establish herself on an equal footing with her male colleagues. In 1990, she entered politics, joining the Green Party list for the municipality of Palermo, and gave up photojournalism, although she continued her activism. She was particularly active in publishing. In 1991, she co-edited Mezzocielo, a biannual magazine written by women to make their voices heard against the mafia and to change society. The following year, she used her salary as a member of parliament to found the publishing house Edizioni della battaglia. In 2007, she founded the International Center of Photography in Palermo, which she directed until the end of her life. She received several honorary distinctions:
• 1985: Eugene W. Smith Award
• 1999: the Mother Jones San Francisco
• 2007: The Cornell Capa Infinity Award (New York) & Peace Woman Across the Globe Award
Her work is present in many institutions and is regularly presented to the public.
A member of the Magnum agency from 1988 to 1991, Franco Zecchin (1953) now lives and works in Marseille, where he continues to explore social practices through photography and coordinates a photography workshop as part of a master's and doctoral program at EHESS. The International Museum of Photography in Rochester, the MoMA in New York, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris have his photographs in their collections. In 1980, he co-founded the Giuseppe Impastato Documentation Center with Letizia Battaglia, in tribute to the murdered anti-Mafia activist. He recently produced a photographic collection dedicated to Letizia Battaglia. From September 27th, 2025, to January 25th, 2026, he will present a solo exhibition entitled “Life in Sicily” at the Fotomuseum aan het Vriithof in Maastricht.