📸 Letizia Battaglia: The Work 1970–2020

From October 18, 2025 to January 11, 2026 – Forlì, Museo Civico San Domenico

A journey through more than 200 photographs between private life and professional and civic engagement: from October 18, 2025 to January 11, 2026, the powerful work of Letizia Battaglia, one of Italy’s most iconic photographers, will be on display at the Museo Civico San Domenico in Forlì.

🔍 About the exhibition

Letizia Battaglia began her career in the early 1970s between Palermo and Milan, writing and photographing for various Italian magazines. Her most recognized period started in the mid-70s, when she returned to Palermo and began documenting daily life for the newspaper L’Ora, capturing the harsh reality of Mafia violence that plagued the city for over a decade.

This exhibition, however, goes far beyond her Mafia reportage. It highlights her deep commitment to portraying Sicily in all its contradictions — its dignity and suffering, the joy and pain, the beauty of youth, the vibrant religious traditions, and the emotional reality inside psychiatric hospitals.

Her images became more than just photojournalism — they became icons and symbols of a wounded but proud region, where brutality and grace coexisted.

🏆 A life of photography and activism

In 1985, she received the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography, gaining international recognition while staying true to her personal vision. As she once said:

“Photography becomes — or rather, is — life being told: I step into a photograph that is the world. I become the world and the world becomes me.”

In the 1980s, Battaglia also expanded her civil engagement through publishing initiatives, founding magazines and a publishing house — adding another layer to her artistic legacy.

Letizia Battaglia passed away in Palermo on April 13, 2022. Her vast body of work is now a vital part of Italy’s cultural and photographic history.

The Museo Civico San Domenico proudly presents this retrospective, reconnecting with an artist who had already built a cultural bond with Forlì in the past.

🎥 What to expect

The exhibition — curated by Walter Guadagnini, and produced by CAMERA (Italian Center for Photography) and Jeu de Paume (Paris) , in collaboration with the Letizia Battaglia Archive — features:

• Over 200 photographs

• Books, newspapers, and magazines from her archive

• A documentary film

• A richly illustrated catalog (published by Dario Cimorelli Editore)

An intense, emotional and deeply human exploration of one of the most uncompromising photojournalists of our time.

🗓️ Plan your visit or buy tickets

Venue: Museo Civico San Domenico
Address: Piazza Guido da Montefeltro, Forlì
Dates: October 18, 2025 – January 11, 2026

🏡 Where to stay in Forlì and Romagna

Make the most of your cultural visit by staying in a fully equipped, cozy and private apartment — perfect for individuals, couples, families, or small groups.

✔️ 2 spacious bedrooms
✔️ Sleeps up to 5 guests + baby crib
✔️ Free private parking + on-street parking in a quiet, safe area
✔️ Fully equipped kitchen + dining area + balcony
✔️ Bright living room
✔️ Bathroom with natural light, shower and washing machine
✔️ Ideal location – near the city center but outside the ZTL (limited traffic zone)

🚆 Close to the train station, airport, university, hospitals and private clinics
🌍 Just minutes away from Cesena, Faenza, Ravenna, Rimini, Bologna, the sea, and the hills of Romagna

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