Letizia

Selecting in his archive the photographs that portray Letizia Battaglia, Franco Zecchin recalls a woman who meant a great deal in his life, an outstanding photographer who with him was the witness of a terrible era, offering a moving, delicate and intimate vision.[…] It is a kind of diary but also the portrait in movement of a special woman who turned every instant of her existence into a novel.

Roberto Andò

In a delivery ward. Augusta (SR), 1981
Ref. 5765_4

Town Council, Palermo, 1987
Ref. 13512_36a

Councelor at Mondello, Palermo, 1989
Ref. 14617_32

Hanging out the wash in the countryside. Polizzi Generosa (PA), 1977
Ref. 2599_0a

On the site of a murder. Palermo, 1976
Ref. 2219-33a

In the musician Francesco La Bruna’s house. Monreale (PA), 1982
Ref. 7232_28

Travelling. Bavaria, Germany, 1983
Ref. 7864_19

Christmas at the psychiatric hospital. Palermo, 1982
Ref. 7665_11a

With Marcella, at the psychiatric hospital. Palermo, 1982
Ref. 7348_25

Theatre workshop in the psychiatric hospital. Palermo, 1982
Ref. 7667_38

Having a sandwich and beer with Josef Koudelka. S. Fratello (ME), 1983
Ref. 7935_32

With Graziella (sit down). Mistretta (ME), 1983
Ref. 8352_16a

At the NATO base roadblock. Comiso (RG), 1983
Ref. 8448_5

Working on her contact sheets. Palermo, 1984
Ref. 8840_89

With young peasant girls. Eskişehir, Turchia, 1984
Ref. 9450_15

In Rada’s home. Split, Yugoslavia, 1985
Ref. 10809_26

Christmas dinner, with Santi Caleca, Shobha, Paolo Titolo, Veronica Pecoraino, Fabio Sgroi, Ferdinando Scianna, Melo Minnella, Filippo La Mantia, Roberto Collovà e Aurora Di Girolamo. Palermo, 1985
Ref. 10956_36a

With Donna Ferrato, ICP, New York, 1985
Ref. 10826_36

With John Morris while she receives the W. Eugene Smith award. ICP, New York, 1985
Ref. 10827_1

Photographing girls at a dance rehearsal at the Biondo theatre. Palermo, 1986
Ref. 11544_19

With Aurora Di Girolamo. Palermo, 1986
Ref. 11792_1

With Leoluca Orlando at the presentation of La Luna publishers in the town hall. Palermo, 1986
Ref. 11215_11

Carnival at the psychiatric hospital. Palermo, 1987
Ref. 12223_30

With Martine Franck. Paris, 1986
Ref. 11800_35

Breakfast at the bar. Madrid, 1987
Ref. 12601_20

Celebrating Easter Monday at la Favorita Park. Palermo, 1988
Ref. 13911_33

With Josef Koudleka and a “giant”. Barrafranca (EN), 1987
Ref. 12573_41

With a donkey. Ustica (PA), 1987
Ref. 12709_9

At Mondello with children from Ballarò. Palermo, 1987
Ref. 12850_43

Town councilor with the municipal gardeners. Palermo, 1988
Ref. 13725_44a

In front of a photo by Robert Doisneau. Rome, 1988
Ref. 13932_25

With Bebo Cammarata inside the town hall. Palermo, 1988
Ref. 14342_2

Town councilor, in Leoluca Orlando’s council. Palermo, 1989
Ref. 14466_20

With Giovanna Giaconia Terranova at a women’s anti-mafia demonstration. Palermo, 1989
Ref. 14681_35

At a trade union demonstration. Palermo, 1987
Ref. 13612_9

Cleaning the seaside. Palermo, 1989
Ref. 14617_12

The Mayor Orlando with the group “La Rete”, Palermo, 1993
Ref. 15527_2

With Roma people in Piazza Pretoria, Palermo, 1989
Ref. 14726_39

With Leoluca Orlando at the commemoration one month after the massacre of Capaci, Palermo, june 23, 1992
Ref. 15220_25

Letizia Battaglia, Paris, 1993
Ref. 15346_21

The images composing this volume retrace private and public moments shared with Letizia Battaglia from the 70s to the beginning of the 90s: theatre, music, the activities inside psychiatric hospital, friendships, festivals, the interest in contemporary artistic creation. While maintaining our own personalities and our approach to reality, complementary but not identical, we trained in photography together and through it.

In this moment, in which Letizia is no longer with us, but her public presence endures and her image is used often in ways that do not reflect who she was, this volume wants to pay homage to her as a person, with her weaknesses, contradictions, her will power and ideals.

Franco Zecchin

Letizia, preface by Roberto Andò – 2023, Softcover, Bilingual: Italian/English 12×17 cm, 45 pages ISBN: 9788831363488 Postcart