Landscapes, Passion and Contamination

curated by Letizia Battaglia and Roberto Timperi.

Biography

Born in Palermo in 1935, Letizia Battaglia is a photographer, artist, film director, ecologist, political activist, publisher and one of Italy’s first female photo-journalists. In 1974 she began her career as a photographer for Palermo’s daily newspaper L’ORA and with her colleague and partner Franco Zecchin, founded the agency “Informazione Fotografica”. A frontline journalist, she documented a Palermo where the Mafia defied the State, settling its own scores and laying down its own bloody laws throughout the territory. She immortalized police officers, judges and the civil servants in the frontline of the battle against Cosa Nostra. Her legacy includes photographs of Giorgio Boris Giuliano, General Dalla Chiesa, magistrates Falcone and Borsellino, as well as the President of the Region of Sicily Piersanti Mattarella with a portrait of him just murdered, lying in his brother Sergio’s arms. (Sergio is now the current President of the Italian Republic). Her photos include portraits of intellectuals such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Ezra Pound. She befriended great photographers such as Diane Arbus, Sebastião Salgado and Josef Koudelka. Letizia Battaglia recorded fourty years of Italian life and society; always being where a story needs to be told, be it at skirmishes in piazza or Mafia murders, in prisons or psychiatric hospitals. But, she declares, her favourite subjects remain women and children. In 1985 she became the first European woman to receive the Eugene Smith award for photojournalism (an annual, international prize in memory of the late, eponymous photographer of Life Magazine, for outstanding photography in the domains of politics, the environment, the economy and society). In 1991 she founded the bimonthly magazine “Mezzocielo” created solely by women and in 1999 she won the

“The Mother Johnson Achievement for Life”, San Francisco. The German Photographic Association (DGPh) awarded her the Erich Salomon Prize in 2007, Peace Women Across the Globe named her one of the 1000 women nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2017 the New York Times listed her (the only Italian woman) among the 11 most influential women in the world and MAXXI Rome honoured her with an anthology gathering over 200 shots, vintage proofs and previously unpublished documents. Other than in Italy, Letizia Battaglia’s work has been exhibited in Eastern Europe, France (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), the United Kingdom, America, Brazil, Switzerland and Canada and she continues to lecture and hold workshops for museums and institutions across Italy and Europe. Since 2017 she has directed and curated the photographic exhibitions and events for historic and contemporary photography at the Centro Internazionale di Fotografia (the International Centre for Photography), at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa in Palermo, Sicily.

Programme

Friday June 14^th
09:30 am – 1:00 pm: meeting Letizia Battaglia, presentation and reading of a portfolio for each participant.
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm lunch break
2:30 pm – 5:30 pm: reading of portfolios and photo shoot in the industrial zone and surrounding area of Laviosa Minerals.
Saturday June 15^th
09:30 am – 1:00 pm: meeting Letizia Battaglia, presentation and reading of images taken previous day.
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm lunch break
2:30 pm – 5:30 pm: photo shoot in the industrial zone of Laviosa Minerals, with model.
Sunday June 16^th
09:30 am – 1:00 pm: presentation and reading of images taken with model.
1:00 pm lunch

The course will be confirmed on the enrolment of a minimum of 15 participants and a maximum of 18.