Theater workshop at the psychiatric hospital. Palermo, 1983
© Franco Zecchin
Cruciferaire. Caltabellotta, Agrigento, 1993 © Franco Zecchin
Benedetto Grado's wife and daughters at the scene of his murder. The family is already in mourning following the murder of their son Antonio Palermo, 1983
© Franco Zecchin
BIOGRAPHY
Letizia Battaglia and Franco Zecchin, 1978 @Franco Zecchin
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.
Franco Zecchin has received several awards and distinctions:
2024 - Award Werner Bischof, Italy
2023 - Career Arward, Festival Fotografico Europeo, Italy
2000 - Humanity photo Award, China
1988 - Prix International de Journalisme Città di Trento
1987 - New York Times Award
EXHIBITIONS
2025-2026
- Life in Sicily, Le Fotomuseum aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht, Netherlands
2025
- Letizia Battaglia - Franco Zecchin, Chroniques siciliennes, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris
2024
- Abitare il silenzio – Inhabiting Silence, Università di Bologna, Italy
- Narrazioni Nomadi - In Sicilia e Altrove, Centro Italiano della Fotografia d’Autore, Bibbiena, Italy
2023
- Letizia, Festival Fotografico Europeo, Busto Arsizio, Italy
- Palermo Mon Amour (collective), Fondazione Merz, Torino, Italy
2019
- Continente Sicilia, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Palerme, Italy
2018
- La condizione umana. Oltre l’istituzione totale (collective), Palazzo Ajutamicristo, Palerme, Italy
2015
- Silesia, Foto Art Festival, Bielsko‑Biała, Poland
2013
- Antimafia, avec L. Battaglia, Musée de l’Arsenal, Metz, France
- Le Noir et le Bleu, un rêve méditerranéen (collective), MuCEM, Marseille, France
2012
- Giovanni Falcone - An Italian Hero (collective), Embassy of Italy, Washington, USA
2011
- Les 30 ans du New York Times Magazine (collective), Rencontres photographiques d’Arles, France
2008
- Antimafia, Institut Culturel Italien, Marseille, France
- Nomads, Festival des Tops de Shenyang, China
2007
- Les Nomades de la Mer, Festival International de la Photo de Mer, Vannes, France
- Photojournalisme italien 1945-2005 (collective), Montpellier, France
2006
- Dovere di Cronaca, avec L.Battaglia, Festival International di Roma, Italy
2005
- Cavalieri della Mongolia, Festival International di Roma, Italie
2004
- Crime and Corruption : Sicilian Chronicles, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia
2002
- Mafiosi inginocchiatevi !, Festival International Photosynkyria, Thessalonique, Greece
- Aperture’ 50th birthday (collective), School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
2001
- La Sicile en révolte, Centre Andaluz de la Fotografia, Almeria, Spain
2000
- Je bouge donc je suis, Festival International de Biarritz, France
1999
- Nomades, Festival Chroniques Nomades, Honfleur, France
- Le monde et l’éphémère (collective), Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles, France
1997
- Kid Size, Vitra Design Museum, Rotterdam, Copenhague, Oslo, Weimar, Glasgow
1996
- Perfetti & Invisibili: The Image of Children Between Manipulation and Reality, Pitti Immagine, Florence, Italy
- Nomades, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France
1995
- The Dead (collective), National Museum of Photography, Bradford, UK
- Un secolo di ritratto (collective), Biennale de Venise, Italy
- La Sicile noire et blanche, Centre Méditerranéen de la Photographie, Bastia, Corse et Médiathèque André-Malraux, Tourcoing, France
1993
- Sicile, Mai de la Photo, Reims, France
- Pollution and public health in the Katowice region, Katowice Museum, Poland
- Immagini Italiane (collective), Aperture Fund., Coll. Guggenheim, Venise, Naples, New York
1990
- Italian Photography, FotoFest, The International Month of Photography, Houston, USA
1988
- Palermo, Centro Storico, Parlement Européen, Strasbourg, France
1986
- Sicily and the Mafia, International Museum of Photography, Rochester, USA