Life, love and death in Sicily in the Photographers Gallery – South London News

During the 1970s and 1980s, a war between the Mafia families in and around Palermo, Sicily, led to hundreds of deaths.

The Corleone clan decided to conquer the city by killing its rivals, along with dozens of police officers, judges and politicians who tried to stop that war.

During this time, photojournalist Letizia Battaglia scoured the alleys of Palermo documenting the mafia’s campaign of terror in her hometown, armed only with a Leica camera and a Vespa.

Her works will be exhibited in Letizia Battaglia: life, love and death in Sicily this autumn at the Photographers Gallery in Soho.

The exhibition, which runs from October 9 to February 24, features some of Ms. Battaglia’s most influential images, from 1971 to 2021.

Ms. Battaglia began her career in journalism in 1969. At age 40, she first picked up a camera to draw more attention to her writing, but her focus changed.

She became photo director at L’Ora, the daily newspaper in Palermo, and visited almost every major crime scene in the city until shortly before the newspaper closed in 1990.

Later describing the process, she said: “I was against them with all their weapons with my bare hands, except my camera. I took pictures of everything.

“Suddenly I had an archive of blood. An archive of pain, despair, terror, drug-addicted youth, young widows, trials and arrests.”

Her work disproved the myth that the mafia only killed each other and was crucial in establishing links between corrupt politicians and the mafiosi.

She took about 600,000 photos for the newspaper and received many death threats because of her work.

In 2017 she said: “You no longer knew who your friends or enemies were. You left the house in the morning and didn’t know if you would come back in the evening.

Ms. Battaglia photographed primarily in black and white. She also captured everyday life, women and children in their neighborhoods and streets.

Her photographs capture poverty on the streets, but also the lives of the upper classes, religious processions, festivals, funerals and more.

Describes her photography of families and children living in the neighborhoods Palermo she said: “I looked for their dream, to find love, adventures, peace, freedom, beauty, a fantastic future. In them I find myself like a child.”

Letizia Battaglia: life, love and death in Sicily brings together vintage and new prints, archive material and contact sheets, books, magazines and film.

Letizia Battaglia died on April 13, 2022 at the age of 87, after a long battle with illness.

Pictured above: The arrest of the fierce mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella (L’arresto del feroce boss mafioso Leoluca Bagarella), Palermo, 1979 (Photo: Courtesy Archivio Letizia Battaglia)

Related stories