Letizia Battaglia

years_active = known_for = notable_works = spouse = partner = Franco Zecchin (1974–2022) children = 3

Letizia Battaglia (; 5 March 1935 – 13 April 2022) was an Italian photographer and photojournalist. Although her photos document a wide spectrum of Sicilian life, she is best known for her work on the Mafia.

A documentary film based on her life, Shooting the Mafia, was released in 2019.

Early life Battaglia was born in Palermo, Sicily. At the age of 14, her father became irate when she took interest in a boy, and sent her away to boarding school. Battaglia wanted to escape and had ambitions to write. Battaglia reacted to this by marrying Franco Stagnitta, who owned his own coffee business and came from a good family. She believed he would allow her to continue her studies, but he wanted her to be a conventional stay-at-home wife, so her writing ambition was thwarted.

Battaglia took some 600,000 images as she covered the territory for the paper. She documented the ferocious internal war of the Mafia and its assault on civil society. She sometimes found herself at the scene of four or five different murders in a single day. Battaglia and Zecchin produced many of the iconic images that have come to represent Sicily and the Mafia beyond Italy. She wanted to expose and condemn the Mafia through her photography. She took her photographs of the dead in black and white as she believed it was more respectful, and offered its own silence.

Publications Passion, Justice, Freedom – Photographs of Sicily. Gordonsville, VA: Aperture, 2003. . Dovere di Cronaca - The Duty to Report., Rome: Peliti Associati, 2006. With Franco Zecchin. . Just For Passion. Drago, 2016. . Anthology. Drago, 2016. .

Exhibitions Letizia Battaglia. Just For Passion, MAXXI - National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome, 2016 Siciliana, Bel Vedere Fotografia, Milan, Italy Bildmaterial der Dr.-Erich-Salomon-Preisträgerin 2007 Letizia Battaglia Dovere di Cronaca, Festival Internazionale di Roma, 2006 Una vita per la Mafia, Orvieto Photography festival, Palazzo dei Sette, Italy, 2009 Letizia Battaglia: Breaking The Code Of Silence, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK, 2014 Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Sicily, 2016 Letizia Battaglia, Vintage Prints, Galleria del Cembalo, Rome, Italy, 2022 Life, Love and Death in Sicily, Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands, 2026

In film and television

Battaglia (2003) – documentary directed by Daniela Zanzotto about Battaglia's life and work. Excellent Cadavers (2005) – documentary directed by Marco Turco and based on the 1995 book by Alexander Stille. Battaglia appears as a witness to the Mafia killings in Palermo. Palermo Shooting (2008) – film directed by Wim Wenders, in which Battaglia made a cameo appearance as a photographer. Letizia Battaglia – Amore Amaro (2012) – documentary directed by Francesco Raganato. La mia Battaglia (2016) – documentary directed by Franco Maresco, centred on a conversation between Maresco and Battaglia about photography, Palermo, life and death. La mafia non è più quella di una volta (2019) – documentary directed by Franco Maresco, featuring Battaglia and Ciccio Mira. It premiered in competition at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. Shooting the Mafia (2019) – documentary directed by Kim Longinotto about Battaglia's life and career. Solo per passione – Letizia Battaglia fotografa (2022) – biographical television miniseries created and directed by Roberto Andò, with Isabella Ragonese portraying Battaglia. Letizia Battaglia, photographe des années de sang (2024) – documentary directed by Cécile Allegra about Battaglia's life and work, broadcast on France 5 in 2025.

Awards 1985: W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography 2009: Cornell Capa Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography, New York City