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Letizia Battaglia
Born in 1935 in Palermo, Italy / Lives in Palermo, Italy

Jens Hoffmann (JH): When exactly did you start taking photographs of the crime scenes of mafia killings? Was there a specific event that prompted you to do this?

Letizia Battaglia (LB): I started working as a photographer in 1972 when I was living in Milan. I mostly worked freelance for various newspapers and agencies. In 1975 the daily newspaper in Palermo, L’ORA, asked me to work for them full-time, which was wonderful, as I had been longing to go back to Sicily. I was rather naive then, a nice blond girl, gentle but determined. I was the first woman to work as a photographer for a newspaper in Italy, and I quickly understood that my job in Palermo would not be easy. In the beginning no one believed I was working for L’ORA, neither the police nor the public, and I had to work extremely hard to convince everyone I was able to do the job just as any man would do it. Around this time the war between the mafia and the government began targeting judges, policemen, reporters, politicians, and other representatives of institutions. For months all I did was run through the city all day, full of pain and rage, shooting everything: murdered people, injured and arrested judges, poor and rich people, trials. I remember the first time I photographed a dead man, killed by another man, my hands trembled and my pictures were out of focus. It has been like this for as long as I have taken these pictures. My hands trembled and the photographs were often really bad. I couldn’t accept violence, injustice, or corruption. I rejected and detested the mafia. Thanks to my work, my consciousness changed entirely, all my life changed. I used all of myself, all of my skills as a photographer, all of my life to denounce the mafia and corruption. I was elected to political power later on to fight against it. 

JH: It is hard for an outsider to understand the influence of the mafia on daily life in Sicily. 

LB: The mafiosi continue to have a strong influence in Sicily. They are everywhere connected with politicians, big business, wherever there is power and money. While things have improved in some respects, we are still without much hope. The fight has not ended yet. 

JH: What were your original intentions when you took these photographs? Did you want them to be seen in an art context, as historical documents, or both?

LB: In the beginning I wanted only to do my duty toward my newspaperL’ORA, which gave me the ability  to claim economic independence and charged me with documenting what was happening in my city. I had no idea about art or museums. Now that I have received recognition in the art world, I feel it allows me  to continue to bring attention to the problem of the mafia controlling  our lives.