Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily – a review

Written by Julia Hargitai

The currently ongoing exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery explores the career of Letizia Battaglia (1935-2022) and the compellingly documented everyday life of Palermo, Sicily, under the terror of the Mafia. The beautifully curated rooms echo that bloody violence, but woven into the web of chaos and death there is  love, life, and celebration. The exhibition is open until February 23rd2025.  

Letizia Battaglia was born in Palermo, Sicily into a bourgeois family. Her father's work as a navy merchant caused her to move around a lot during her childhood between Naples, Civitavecchia, and Trieste. She returned to Palermo at the age of ten. At sixteen, she ran away from her family and married a wealthy young man, Franco Stagnitta. From then on, her company consisted of intellectuals from the avant-garde theatre world, and she built close friendships with people such as Michele Perriera, an Italian writer and director. In 1969, Battaglia started working with L’Ora, Palermo’s daily paper, and published her first photograph of Enza Montoro. She was a fully self-taught photographer, and while her visual language shows her knowledge of art history, it is also deeply personal and instinctive. She believed in the societal role of photography, as a tool not only for documentation, but also for empowerment. She possessed a strong desire for justice, change, and independence. She photographed victims of Mafia murders, the bloody stage for the fight between rival gangs, police officers, judges, and other establishment figures fighting against the organised crime of Italy. Her work as a journalist was particularly prominent, as she aimed to disprove the myth that the Mafia only targeted each other, and her work was critical in providing links between gangs and corrupt politicians. But alongside the violence, she captured the realities of daily life as well; poverty, the upper class, religion, and compassion.

Letizia Battaglia, Desperation of a Son (Disperazione di un Figlio), 1976, Palermo. Courtesy of the Archivio Letizia Battaglia

The exhibition is divided into two rooms, across two levels. A striking element of the curation is the lack of specific themes or chapters; Battaglia’s works are exhibited as a flow of images to reflect on her diverse and dynamic approach and the chaotic daily life of Palermo. It is important to note that due to the nature of Battaglia’s subjects, the exhibition contains potentially triggering contents of crime, blood, nudity, murder scenes, police brutality, and more, so viewer discretion is advised. The truth of Battaglia’s work lies, however, in this very statement; nothing here is joyful, or pleasant, but exactly what photojournalism is, it is real. The atmosphere of the first room is dark, with a flow of images showing murdered men, many of whom were innocent as the captions reveal. All of the darkness is heightened by the fact that Battaglia mainly shot in black and white, and the room is painted grey, mimicking the monochromatic feel of a funeral. She also utilised a wide-lens angle in her photographs and stayed close to her subjects, showing her unflinching commitment to revealing a watchful image of life in Sicily. The lack of composition between the images allows viewers to feel part of Battaglia’s everyday, witnessing the violence at every corner. There is a beautiful duality between the photographs; as one may show the poverty of the streets of Palermo, right next to it there’s a photograph of upper-class banquets and festivals. A particularly striking piece is the image of Rosaria Schifani at her husband’s funeral, towering over the sea of violent images. The close-up of her quiet plea became a symbol of defiance. 

Letizia Battaglia, Rosaria Schifani at her husband’s funeral in 1992, 1992, Palermo. Courtesy of the Archivio Letizia Battaglia

The second room of the exhibition is called ‘The Forest’. Opposed to the traditional way of hanging images on the wall, Battaglia’s photographs hang from the ceiling, creating a ‘forest of images’. In 2015 Battaglia decided, in collaboration with curator Paolo Falcone, to show her images in this new and exploratory way during her exhibition at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa in Palermo, titled Anthology. This method of display allows new connections to be made and shows Battaglia’s work as she intended – not as multiple series, but as an everlasting, evolving work that spread throughout her lifetime. Visitors can choose their path through the hanging images, which creates a more democratic relationship between photographs and the viewers. What is visible here is Battaglia’s affinity for the women and girls she met, drawing connections between their lives and hers. In this room her later works are also represented with one beautiful photograph of her daughter giving birth to her granddaughter, a moment that parallels the power and timelessness of the murders in the first room. This addition brings the title of the exhibition together, as she optimistically turns to the female body as the future to create new life. In this room, the curators created a wall for viewer reflection on Battaglia’s statement, ‘The duty to take photographs prevails before all else’. This leaves us pondering the moral question of photojournalism, the question of responsibility and universality.

Letizia Battaglia remains a pioneering figure in Sicilian contemporary history and continued to work until she died in 2022. Alongside being a self-taught photographer, she was a journalist, publisher, environmentalist, politician, civil rights activist, film director, and museum director. Life, Love and Death in Sicily is a well-composed exhibition that pays homage to the impact of Battaglia’s work, and particularly to her passion. Whether it is death, grief, shame, fear, love, or celebration, Battaglia will show it with compassion and emotion. Her unwavering dedication is further elevated by an exhibited letter from the Mafia which reads, ‘Leave Palermo immediately. With your way of doing things, you have broken our balls too much’. While a death threat such as this and the images of bloodshed create an atmosphere of fear, where death is found around every corner, this exhibition is just as much about life, and all the brutal realities that come with it.