Shooting the Mafia

Bearing witness to the barbaric reign of the Sicilian mafia, Letizia Battaglia’s black-and-white photography captures decades of violence on the streets of her home town, Palermo. Kim Longinotto traces Battaglia’s journey from marriage aged 16 to a new career at 40 as the first Italian woman to be a photographer for a daily newspaper, defiantly pointing her camera at the devastation wrought by the Cosa Nostra. With a wealth of archive material - from classic Italian cinema to nail-biting contemporary reportage - Shooting the Mafia is a portrait of a fearless journalist, a passionate activist and a courageous woman who has broken free of convention and expectation in every area of her life.