Ice cream for the festival of San Sebastiano, Mistretta, 1983

Letizia Battaglia (1935-2022) was one of Italy’s most important social documentary photographers. She captured everyday life, alongside the brutal reality of the mafia and their victims in Sicily. Her images are some of the best-known records of life in their shadow. She was also a civil rights activist, journalist, film director, environmentalist, politician and a key figure in Sicilian contemporary history. Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily at The Photographers’ Gallery, London until 23 February

Mafia boss Luciano Liggio in court, Palermo, 1978

Born in Palermo, Sicily, Battaglia began her photographic career in the early 1970s, when she was in her 40s. ‘I was saved by photography,’ she once said. ‘I was a young, intelligent, desperate woman. My encounter with photography allowed me to express my thoughts, my rebellion, my social and political commitment’

Aristocratic reception in the garden with a dead fox, Palermo, 1987

Riding a Vespa and armed only with her Leica camera, Battaglia scoured the alleys of Palermo, day and night. She was always the first on the scene of a crime, often even before police and relatives

Woman mourns the death of communist deputy Pio La Torre, killed by the mafia, Palermo, 1982

Her images are some of the best-known records of life in this dangerous era. In her relentless pursuit against organised crime, she used her camera to document the daily terror, putting it on the front page

Reception for the nobility at Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi, Palermo 1976

It was here that film director Luchino Visconti shot the famous ball scene in his 1963 film The Leopard

The little girl with the ball, Quartiere Cala, Palermo, 1980

Battaglia mainly photographed in black and white. She also captured daily life: women and children in their neighbourhoods and streets, showing the wealth of the area and at the same time the misery of a city almost abandoned to its fate

Boss Gaetano Fidanzati in court, Palermo, 1978

Reporting for the daily newspaper L’Ora, Battaglia, or one of her colleagues, was present at every major crime scene in the city over two decades

Feast of San Giuliano, Pollina, 1986

Battaglia’s pictures capture the poverty on the streets as well as the life of the upper classes, religious processions, festivals, funerals and much more

Prisoners behind bars at the Ucciardone prison, Palermo 1983

Battaglia wanted to expose and condemn the mafia. She photographed the dead so often that she once said: ‘Suddenly, I had an archive of blood.’ She believed it was more respectful to shoot the dead in black and white as it offered its own silence

Desperation of a son, Palermo, 1976

Because of her photographs, Battaglia spent many years fearing assassination. Even so, she chose not to have bodyguards. In 2017 she told the Guardian: ‘You no longer knew who your friends or enemies were. In the morning you came out of the house and did not know if you’d come back in the evening’

Magistrate Roberto Scarpinato with his escort on the roof of the court, Palermo, 1998

‘Photography changes nothing,’ Battaglia once said. ‘Violence continues, poverty continues. Children are still being killed in stupid wars’

Near the church of Santa Chiara. The killer’s game, Palermo, 1982

Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily is the first major exhibition in the UK since her death in 2022. The exhibition is curated by Paolo Falcone, in collaboration with Archivio Letizia Battaglia and Fondazione Falcone Per Le Arti and supported by the Fondaziona Candido Speroni e Carla Fendi Speroni, the Italian Cultural Institute, London and Ambra & Antonio Gatti