27 September 2025 – 25 January 2026
Fotomuseum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, the Netherlands, presents an exhibition by Italian social documentary photographer Franco Zecchin from 27 September 2025 until 25 January 2026. The exhibition Life in Sicily features fifty iconic black-and-white photographs taken on the Italian island between 1975 and 1994. During this turbulent period, Sicily faced large-scale mafia violence, political corruption, and social inequality.
In 1975, Franco Zecchin moved to Palermo and began his career as a photojournalist for the daily newspaper L’Ora, paying particular attention to the influential mafia organization Cosa Nostra. The engaged photographer captured assassinations, funerals, protests, and the everyday reality of people trying to live in the shadow of this threat. Zecchin’s images reflect an island in crisis and the resilience of its inhabitants.
The photographer is considered one of the most important visual chroniclers of Sicily’s bloody mafia era. The exhibition offers a penetrating view of the struggle between organized crime, civil society, and government. The images also show the complexity of a society where violence and beauty often coexist uneasily. In 2019, a selection from this extensive photo series is bundled in the book Continente Sicilia.
Franco Zecchin (Milan, 1953) worked intensively with his partner, photographer, and anti-mafia activist Letizia Battaglia. From 1988 to 1991, he was an associate member of the Magnum Photos agency. The photographer explored themes of nomadism and religious feasts in the 1990s. Besides exhibitions in Europe and the United States, his internationally acclaimed work is included in the collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Since 2006, Zecchin has been living and teaching in Marseille.
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© Franco Zecchin - The 'Lapa', a popular and family car. Palermo 1980
© Franco Zecchin - Benedetto Grado's wife and daughters at the scene of his murder. The family was already mourning the son Antonio's murder. Palermo 1983
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