This Is Italy
From September 27, 2025 to January 25, 2026, the Fotomuseum at the Vrijthof in Maastricht will be completely dedicated to Sicily. The Italian photographer Franco Zecchin will be showing his exhibition Life in Sicily 50 compelling black-and-white images of an island in crisis and the resilience of the people who lived there.
The photographs, taken between 1975 and 1994, capture one of the most violent periods in recent Sicilian history: a time of assassinations, bloody settling of scores, political corruption and appalling inequality. Zecchin moved to Palermo in 1975 and worked as a photojournalist for the newspaper Time, where he focused primarily on the influence of the notorious mafia organization Cosa Nostra on daily life.
Beauty and tragedy
His photographs show not only violence and loss, but also protests, funerals, religious rituals and the ordinary lives of people who tried to survive despite everything. Life in Sicily not just a history lesson, but a raw, visual experience that confronts the viewer with the beauty and tragedy of a society that teetered on the brink of the abyss.
Franco Zecchin (Milan, 1953) worked closely with his partner Letizia battaglia, also a photographer and a well-known anti-mafia activist. From 1988 to 1991 he was an associate member of the renowned Magnum Photos agency. In the nineties he broadened his horizons to themes such as nomadism and religious festivals.
Top collections
His work has been internationally acclaimed and is included in top collections such as those of the MoMA in New York and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. He currently lives and teaches in Marseille.
Anyone interested in Italy, photography or the recent history of Sicily should not miss this exhibition. The photographs are impressive not only because of their content, but also because of their sober, powerful aesthetics. Some of the images were previously collected in the book Continent Sicily (2019)
More information:
www.fotomuseumaanhetvrijthof.nl
Source: press release Monsieur PR
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