Battaglia, Letizia (b. 1935), Italian photojournalist, born and mainly brought up in Palermo, Sicily. Married at 16, she took up photojournalism after her divorce in 1971. In 1974, after a period in Milan during which she met her long-time partner Franco Zecchin (b. 1953), she returned to Sicily to work on the communist newspaper L'ora, remaining with it—though never a party member—almost until its closure in 1990. In these years, dominated by ever bloodier, drug-fuelled conflict between crime syndicates, and between mafiosi and the state, Battaglia created c.600, 000 images. They form a searing record of the violence, sorrow, and despair that had become everyday reality in the Sicilian capital. With courage and tenacity, Battaglia and Zecchin used the camera as a weapon against endemic corruption, and the civil disintegration and infrastructural decay it caused. Battaglia also became involved in women's and environmental issues, and from 1985 to 1997 held a Green seat on the city council. For a time she ran a publishing house, Edizioni della Battaglia, and co-founded a monthly journal for women, Mezzocielo.
— Robin Lenman
Bibliography
- Harris, M., et al., Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom. Photographs of Sicily (1999)
