Letto cementificato del fiume Oreto e disordine urbanistico, Palermo

The images captured by Letizia Battaglia manifest a passionate social and political commitment. For thirty years she has photographed her native land – the island of Sicily – in crude and painful black & white images, denouncing the actions of the Mafia in courageous and in-depth reportages for Palermo’s daily newspaper L’Ora. As a photographer, film director and editor she has also confronted environmental issues, women’s issues and the prisoners’ rights. Patrolling the coast east of Palermo for the "atlante italiano 003" she documented sites scarred by signs of abandonment in strong and direct images marked by an elevated formal coherence. The decay captured in these images is only one of the many consequences of the moral and civil deterioration that Battaglia believes can be contrasted only by involving all of society.