From the blurb:
Letizia Battaglia's story, her vision of Sicily, and her fight for justice against the mafia as revealed in this biographical monograph are as stunning as they are heroic. This W. Eugene Smith Award-winning photographer demonstrates photography's power to serve as both a weapon and a voice for the silent majority. After years of risking her own life to fight for the life of the troubled city of Palermo-as a photographer, publisher, deputy council-woman, ecological activist, defender of women's rights, defender of human rights-Battaglia continues the battle with the passion, intelligence, and unique perspective for which she is known. Yet her battle is not motivated by hatred, but rather by compassion and a profound sense of justice.
Battaglia's remarkable strength, fierce inner power, and resilience facilitate her effectiveness. She battles for freedom: to liberate Palermo from the hold of the mafia, to liberate Sicilian women from the fearful society that has oppressed them. Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom-Photographs of Sicily juxtaposes candid pictures of the everyday joy, suffering, and vitality of the Sicilians with images of the effect of the mafia predators who for so long have controlled much of the city's political and economic life. In his inspiring and powerful essay, Roberto Scarpinato addresses Palermo, Battaglia, and life at its most extreme. Palermo's mayor, Leoluca Orlando, has written an intimate letter to Battaglia, expressly for this book, about their work together. Alexander Stille chronicles Battaglia's fight against the mafia, placing her photographs within the context of Sicily in the 1980s and '90s, while Renate Siebert explores the role of women in relation to the mafia. Magazine editor Simona Mafai contributes an essay about her work with Battaglia, and Melissa Harris provides a biographical profile on this extraordinary woman, photographer, and fighter.
In 1999, Battaglia received the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alexander Stille is the author of numerous books, including Excellent Cadavers (Vintage, 1996), and is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and other magazines. Renate Siebert is the author of Secrets of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia (Verso, 1996). She is currently an associate professor of sociology at the University of Calabria, Italy. Magistrate Roberto Scarpinato is actively fighting the mafia in Palermo and prosecuting Italy's ex-prime minister Giulio Andreotti. Leoluca Orlando is the Mayor of Palermo. Simona Mafai is one of the principal editors of the Sicilian monthly Mezzocielo. Angela Casiglia Battaglia was Letizia Battaglia's mother. Melissa Harris is Senior Editor at Aperture.