(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Written with Truls Lie
It was difficult for Letizia Battaglia to be independent in a male-dominated world. At first her father refused to leave the house, later her husband would not let her study. What about the women in today's Sicily? If they are still suppressed, we ask the well-known photographer:
- Today's women are far more independent and have more freedom. However, many women are unemployed, as there are few jobs to find. But still, they have significantly greater opportunities to manage their lives than we had. At the same time, many immigrant women are forced to prostitute themselves.
- When you started photographing as a journalist as an 40 year-old, you found out that you preferred å photographing rather than writing. Was it a coincidence or fate?
- I don't believe in fate. It was a choice. I was the only mafia photographer at the time. I countered everything the mafia did with any means I could find. Yes, I received death threats and was asked to leave Palermo, but I stayed and continued my work. I've been fighting the mafia – with and without a camera.
- As a woman, you had to fight for at all å be allowed to take pictures. Do you think you would have taken different pictures if you had been a man?
"In Italy, we ended the fight against the mafia with the inception of former Prime Minister Berlusconi 20 years ago."
- If I were a man, I would be different. I love photographs taken by women. If a woman has talent, she is far braver, much more attentive, and she respects the people she takes pictures of more than the man does. By and large, there are not many female war photographers. I think it is closer for women to explore life and what life is. Not war.
- Your pictures of the mafia are taken in extreme environments, but there is still a lot of poetry and emotion in them. How do you achieve this in such a tough situation?
- Photography is a fantastic instrument, which depends on the person using it. Photo also reflects the photographer's personality. If a person is vicious, the pictures will reveal it. If a person is poetic and sensitive, this will also appear in the photographs.
It does great harm if you glorify and honor phenomena such as the mafia, corruption, drugs and all kinds of crime.
- You portray the mafia's brutality and the suffering it causes. What do you think of movies that glorify the mafia, such as the Godfather trilogy by Francis Ford Coppola?
- It's a shit. It does great harm if you glorify and honor such phenomena as the mafia, corruption, drugs and all kinds of crime. I believe that film directors who portrayed the mafia in a glorifying way have done so for the sake of their career, but they have acted irresponsibly. These types of movies create a lot of misfortune, they mislead people, and they do no good to society.
- What about the book Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano? Does it give an honest portrait of the mafia?
- I like Saviano and really appreciate his work. He is very brave, precise and honest. There are very few people who really fight against the mafia, like him. Other good examples are the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, who has always fought against the mafia, and the public prosecutor Nino Di Matteo, who revealed the secret pact between the state and the mafia. Together with his staff, Di Matteo proved that after the killings of Judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, members of the Italian police and government worked closely with criminal leaders. If the mafia stopped the terrible terror, the government would reduce the penalties for the imprisoned mafia bosses.
- What about the mafia today?
- Now the power of the mafia is institutionalized. Cosa nostra is part of politics, the hospital system, the police, the real estate industry. In Italy, we ended the fight against the mafia with the entry of former Prime Minister Berlusconi 20 years ago. The banal government that is now in power does not fight the mafia. The mayor of Palermo is independent, but he stands alone. Some judges and prosecutors also fight against Cosa nostra, but the Italian government does not.
Read review of the movie Shooting the Mafia
