Letizia Battaglia, a photojournalist against the mafia, died at the age of 87

Letizia Battaglia, the historic anti-mafia photojournalist, died at the age of 87, a few days before her story was broadcast by Rai in a fiction by Roberto Andò.

He fought against illness and physical suffering to the last without stopping, so much so that last week he took part in a photography workshop in Orvieto. And he also prepared other trips abroad to respond to the many invitations he still received from all over the world.

Her relationship with photography began in 1971. She had recently arrived in Milan, the first stage of a career that also touched Paris before turning again towards Sicily. Letizia Battaglia collaborated with some newspapers, but she had to illustrate her stories with images.

The subject of his first shot was Pier Paolo Pasolini. But the turning point came in 1974, when she answered the invitation of the editor of the newspaper L'Ora, Vittorio Nisticò, and soon became a witness to the great news of Palermo and Sicily.

He has filmed the murdered dead, the wives and sisters of the victims, the mafia massacres. His photos were dramatic and symbolic icons of the Cosa Nostra events. As were those who reprimanded the bosses accused in the maxi-trial, Giovanni Falcone who collected the revelations of Tommaso Buscetta, the figure of Giulio Andreotti accused of having had relations with Cosa Nostra.

The most dramatic and most evocative shot is the one shot by Sergio Mattarella as he tries to rescue his brother Piersanti shot down by the mafia hitmen.

Her work was not lacking in a strong civil commitment but also a sense of disgust that led Letizia Battaglia to often change subjects and to take care above all of women and girls.

Famous, against the backdrop of the miseries of the Kalsa neighborhood, is the photo of the little girl with the ball that she will be able to find and hug after 40 years. Photographs exhibited all over the world and which have also earned her prestigious international awards such as the Eugene Smith Prize.

There was also a period in which she also let herself be tempted by politics. With the greens she was elected regional deputy and then also appointed councilor for urban decoration in one of the councils of Leoluca Orlando.

(Unioneonline / L)