Momenti decisivi

The evocative venue of Porta Palio hosts a series of meetings dedicated to author photography, promoted by the Cultural Association Quinta Parete in collaboration with Studio Ennevi and the Mutual Aid Society Porta Palio.

Leading the series will be Matteo Mauli, a young photography scholar and the project's creator.

The common thread of the three evenings will be photography as a tool for understanding and questioning reality.
The three featured photographers have traversed different eras and locations, but all have chosen the camera to tell what was before their eyes.

The eyes that have seen Hell and Paradise on Earth
The first appointment will be dedicated to Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian photographer who chooses photography as a means to tell the social and human reality encountered during a journey in Africa.
From his early reports on migration and the living conditions of the populations of the Sahel, Salgado has built over the decades an extraordinary body of work, traveling to every part of the world.

The eyes that have never known omertà and indifference
The second evening will be dedicated to Letizia Battaglia, a fundamental figure in Italian photojournalism.
Throughout her long career, Battaglia has become one of the most important witnesses to the events of her city, Palermo, and of Italian history.
For over twenty years she has photographed the mafia war, documenting murders, trials, victims, and scenes of daily life. 
However, her photography does not stop at crime news. After the massacres of Capaci and via d'Amelio, she chooses not to photograph mafia crimes anymore and increasingly focuses her gaze on people, on women, on girls and boys of Palermo, on the outskirts, and on conditions of social hardship.

The eyes that have stared History in the face
The third appointment will be dedicated to Abbas, a photojournalist of Iranian origins.
From Biafra to Cuba, from revolutions to international conflicts, Abbas has used photography as an investigative tool on reality.
Since 1987, his work has focused on the major religions, creating significant reports like “Allah O Akbar,” “Journey into Christianity,” and “In the Name of Whom?”.
Through his images, it will be possible to follow a photographic perspective always attentive to the human dimension, the complexity of societies, and the relationship between the individual, faith, politics, and history.