Published on 11/13/2016 7:12 pm Updated on 12/06/2016 6:30 am
Report: D. Leoni / C. Giugliano / D. Lameta
Letizia Battaglia, a photo journalist fighting the Sicilian mafia
She has spent 30 years of her life fighting the Sicilian mafia. The Mediterranean Photography Center in Bastia is currently hosting an exhibition by Italian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia. Now aged 81, she continues to tirelessly bear witness to the ravages of the mafia.
30 years living in Palermo. 30 years photographing the city, its people, and inevitably the omnipresence and violence of the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. Almost daily executions of residents, but also of police officers, judges, and politicians, which she covered for the communist daily newspaper L'Ora.
The most important photographic work on the Cosa Nostra Black-and-white photos, taken with a wide-angle lens, looking very closely and getting up close and personal, including with gangsters, have earned Letizia Battaglia several awards for her work on the mafia. In 2007, she was awarded the Erich Salomon Prize for “outstanding photojournalism” and in 2009 she received the Cornell Capa Award. Her total commitment led her to choose another field in which to fight against the mafia, fascism, and injustice: politics. She was elected to the Sicilian Regional Parliament and became deputy mayor of Palermo, where she fought against crime and corruption.
Today, the photographer says that her photos, considered the most important documentary record of the Cosa Nostra, have served no purpose, that the mafia is still present all over the world, more powerful than ever, even if its face has changed. And yet, at 81, tireless, she continues to bear witness to the ravages of organized crime on our societies.