Currently 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 Berthet-Aittouarès gallery 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.

An exceptional woman, passionate, committed, and 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 the “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 is a powerful weapon, the couple wants to raise public awareness about the corruption that plagues the political sphere and the business world, allowing the mafia to thrive. They document all kinds of news stories and trials, as well as city council meetings, shows, cultural events, and sporting events, in order to faithfully portray the inner workings of this influence.

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 or so 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.