The Fasting Women - against mafia

• Prize
• Photographer
  Francesco Francaviglia, Italy
• Website
  http://francescofrancaviglia.com
• Instagram
  @francescofrancaviglia

THE FASTING WOMEN - AGAINST MAFIA
In the summer of 1992, following the carnage at Capaci that slew
judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and his police
officers, and the blast in Via D'Amelio in which judge Paolo Borsellino
and his five bodyguards lost their lives, a group of women in Palermo
(Sicily) felt the need to do something, to react in some way. Their
highly symbolic action took the shape of a hunger strike in the main
square of the city, an act which still comes across as courageous even
today. Twenty-two years on, those women, some of whom were no
more than girls at the time, have come together again in the work of
Francesco Francaviglia. The work “The Fasting Women - against
mafia" is the first photography solo exhibition hosted by the Uffizi
Gallery in Florence and the winner of the Portfolio Italia Prize set up by
FIAF as the best photographic work of 2014.
The book, published in 2014 by Postcart, contains 112 pages with 31
portraits and includes essays and contributions (in Italian and English)
from Pietro Grasso, Speaker of the Italian Senate; Leoluca Orlando,
Mayor of Palermo; Franca Imbergamo, a magistrate with the National
Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office; Antonio Natali, Director of the Uffizi
Gallery; Letizia Battaglia, a photographer; Salvo Palazzolo, a journalist
with La Repubblica; along with a number of testimonials from the
women portrayed in the photographs and newspaper articles dated
1992.
The format is 250x200 mm and on the hardcover, over the woman's
face, are printed the names of all the mafia victims.

Over the past decade, musician, photographer, and lecturer Francesco Francaviglia, has developed a significant body of work centered on Mafia-related themes. His archive, recently acquired by the Italian Ministry of Culture, includes key pieces of Italian history, such as records of major Mafia trials and portraits of politicians, activists, victims, journalists, and magistrates. Additionally, Francaviglia has documented social and human rights issues, focusing on refugees, LGBTQIA+, and the plight of women migrating from North Africa, the Balkans, Kosovo, Albania,Iraq, Iran, and Ukraine.

Awards Among other personalities of public life he has worked with the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic, the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, the American singer Patti Smith, the French bestseller author Edouard Louis and repeatedly had the honor of photographing the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Francesco Francaviglia is the first living photographer whose work has been exhibited at the prestigious Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He has received awards and recognition from numerous international festivals and institutions.