Wondering where to begin with Sicily’s Mafia years in pictures? Letizia Battaglia photography is the answer: she covered Palermo’s killings for the newspaper L’Ora and left some 600,000 images.
This profile belongs to the wider story of italian photojournalism, where her work stands as one of the clearest examples of news photography turned into civic testimony.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Age at death | 87 years (reported April 2022) |
| Photography director of L’Ora | From 1974 until shortly before the paper folded in 1990 |
| Size of her archive | Some 600,000 images |
| People murdered or made to disappear in the Mafia war | Some one thousand people |
| Documentary about her | “Shooting the Mafia” (2019), by Kim Longinotto |
These figures come from The New York Review of Books and a Reuters obituary on Euronews. Figures in press accounts can change or be revised, so check the sources before you rely on them.
Who was Letizia Battaglia?
Letizia Battaglia was born in Palermo in 1935 and began working as a freelance writer in 1969, according to Artforum’s review of her London exhibition. In the early 1970s she separated from her husband and moved back from Milan with her daughters to become photography director of the daily newspaper L’Ora.
Her work went beyond the camera. Artforum describes her as an environmental activist, a member of Palermo’s city council and a defender of women’s rights, and Reuters reported that she served several times on the council and the Sicilian regional assembly in the 1980s and 1990s.
When she died in April 2022 at 87, Leoluca Orlando, the city’s mayor at the time, called her a flag bearer on the path of liberation of Palermo from governance by the Mafia, as Reuters reported.
Her years at L’Ora
Alexander Stille wrote in The New York Review of Books that Battaglia was photography director of L’Ora, Palermo’s left-wing daily, from 1974 until shortly before it folded in 1990. In her sixteen years there she and her longtime partner Franco Zechin produced many of the images that came to represent Sicily and the Mafia around the world.
The job was not only crime. The same article lists what she photographed for the paper:
- fashion shows and crime scenes
- religious processions and striptease performances
- political rallies
- glittering receptions in the palaces of Palermo’s aristocracy
In a 2016 VICE interview she said she photographed “with passion” and wanted to document everything she felt acted as testimony against the Mafia. She added that she stopped shooting crime when L’Ora closed. Accounts of exactly how long she covered crime vary a little by source, so treat the dates as approximate.
The Palermo she photographed
The city she worked in was at war. The New York Review of Books reports that between 1978 and 1992 Cosa Nostra murdered virtually every public official in Sicily who interfered with its business, and that some one thousand people were murdered or made to disappear in the wider Mafia war.
Battaglia was on call from morning until late at night, and sometimes found herself at the scene of four or five different murders in a single day. The same article says she began documenting the Mafia long before it was popular or safe to do so.
The violence reached the top. In a VICE interview she recalled the anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, assassinated in 1992: “I feel humiliated, angry, and determined not to give up.”
The images that defined the Mafia years
Three pictures from this period are often described as defining ones. The New York Review of Books names them:
- a corpse lying face down in an alleyway
- a boy with his face hidden in a nylon stocking, brandishing a toy gun with the look of a hardened killer
- black-shawled women sitting impassively on chairs beside a corpse bleeding onto the sidewalk
Artforum reviewed a London exhibition that gathered her crime-scene work made for L’Ora between 1976 and 1991. One 1976 image shows a man killed on his way to the garage, shot from almost above his head, with a distant crowd watching.
Another Artforum example dates from 1980: a barefoot woman in black, held by police officers, sobs and yells because she thinks the murdered owner of the Hotel Riva Smeralda was her son. Her pain contrasts with the composed men around her.
Artforum notes that critics often compare Battaglia with Weegee, but says she differs in her insistence on social advocacy. In a quote reported by Reuters, she said she wanted to shake consciences by showing not only violent deaths but also the poverty caused by the Mafia.
Why did police search her archive?
In 1993 several policemen arrived at her home with a warrant to search a photo archive that The New York Review of Books puts at some 600,000 images, mostly still in negatives and contact sheets. The archive was organised by subject, and the police asked for the file on the Christian Democratic Party.
They were looking for evidence in the case against Giulio Andreotti, indicted in early 1993 by Palermo prosecutors, who was seven times prime minister. What they found was a photograph from the late 1970s of Andreotti with the businessman Nino Salvo, who was later found to be a linchpin of the Mafia system in Sicily.
Andreotti had always insisted he never met Salvo, yet two photographs in the archive showed them together at a Christian Democratic rally. The episode shows why a news photographer’s ordinary assignments can become evidence years later.
Reuters likewise noted that investigators once consulted her archive of more than half a million pictures to learn who had attended a political rally decades earlier.
Beyond crime: society, activism and legacy
Battaglia also photographed “Sicilia bene”, the high society of the island, whose members often had links to politics and organised crime, Reuters noted. Artforum says the London show placed crime scenes beside religious holidays, noble receptions and lovers on the beach, so that pain seemed to haunt even happy moments.
She did not find the work easy. In the exhibition video she spoke of her struggle with seeing so much death and capturing it for others, and of wanting to burn her negatives.
Later work looked for beauty. In 2016 she told VICE that her book Anthology, curated by Paolo Falcone, was an attempt to find beauty within the ugliness, and that today’s Mafia is “more subtle” and “doesn’t kill judges, politicians, or police men anymore”, as quoted by VICE.
The 2019 film “Shooting the Mafia” by Kim Longinotto is one of several documentaries about her, according to Reuters. To place her beside her peers, read the profiles of famous italian photojournalists, and for photographers who worked in conflicts abroad, see the guide to italian war photographers.
Frequently asked questions
What is Letizia Battaglia best known for?
Show answer
She is best known for documenting Mafia killings in Palermo for L’Ora, including the boy with a stocking over his face and a toy gun. Reuters described her as a world-renowned photographer.
How big is her archive?
Show answer
The New York Review of Books gives some 600,000 images, most of them in negatives and contact sheets, while Reuters says more than half a million pictures.
Did she only photograph the Mafia?
Show answer
No. Her work for L’Ora also covered fashion shows, religious processions, political rallies and aristocratic receptions, as The New York Review of Books describes.
How is she different from Weegee?
Show answer
Artforum says she shares his visual drama, bold lines and unexpected compositions, but differs in her insistence on social advocacy.
