They are magnificent, moving, also strong,
but primarily to me they are the images that we will host at the future International Centre of Photography in Palermo.
They will form the first collection of the photographic archives.
He wants the eyes; he wants to photograph their essence, the story of these years through the human’s faces.
And he does so gently, without ever raising his voice, almost in silence; almost a prayer.
Because this is what a good photographer must do. He must give his soul and mingle it with another, always with respect,
without vanity, aware that that photograph will be forever. With a click.
It’s a miracle!
Letizia Battaglia
"Seventy years ago Satre considered writing to be useless unless it had a nearly revolutionary, political and civil objective.
I believe this is the meaning and the purpose behind the beautiful story told by Francesco Francaviglia’s images: stating the civil and political subjectivity.
Today, after Auschwitz and after Lampedusa, poetry, or better literature and culture,
do have the right to exist if they can reclaim their ancient power of the lògos - as Gorgia described in his Encomium of Helen as an “ever powerful lord” - even through the devastating strength of images,
as Francaviglia does, underlining once again the sacredness of life and love."
Prof. Giovanni Puglisi
"Only those whose conscience is certain that they have done everything possible to break the code of silence, only those who feel that they have made their contribution, great or small, to the quest for truth and justice, to educating the younger generation to be responsible, to the spread of legality as a shared culture, will be able to look at these photos without having to avert their eyes."
Pietro Grasso
former President of the Senate
of the Italian Republic
"Con il suo inconfondibile stile di fotografo e ritrattista, Francaviglia attraversa le vicende più emblematiche della nostra storia attuale:
dalle stragi di mafia alle guerre e alle carestie che attraversano la vita dei popoli del Mediterraneo.
Nonostante la minaccia terribile del terrorismo di matrice islamista, anzi proprio in
ragione della sua tenebrosa espansione, è necessario riaffermare il primato della
civiltà dei Diritti umani universali per non perdere una sfida a dir poco epocale.
Francaviglia usa i volti per raccontare gli scenari e ci riesce in maniera mirabile con il suo lavoro che è soprattutto testimonianza di una non comune sensibilità per il dolore e per l’umanità."
Franca Imbergamo
Sostituto Procuratore Nazionale
Antimafia e Antiterrorismo
