Silence is a Gift

Photographs Ciro Battiloro
Concept, editing and sequencing Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi
Design Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, in collaboration with Perrine Serre
Text Erri De Luca

92 pages
22.5 × 25 cm
French / English / Italian
Publication date March 2024

Rione Sanità (Naples), Santa Lucia (Cosenza), Torre del Greco. There are places in Southern Italy that carry scars of incurable wounds on the walls and on the flesh of their inhabitants. In those wounds lies the historical memory and the true face of people. Their names are Alfonso, Elena, Marco, Stefania, to name a few. Some are from the same districts and know each other, others don’t. But they have one thing in common: they’ve all met Ciro Battiloro, who has followed them into the intimacy of their homes, with his camera and with his heart. He portrays their everyday life by taking part in it. Never an intruder, Ciro Battiloro is a friend, a brother, and a confidant. He doesn’t focus so much on marginality, but rather on extraordinary vitality. He has seen new lives being born, children becoming teenagers, and then parents in their turn. He has also had to say goodbye. Silence is a Gift is about love and loneliness, life and death, pain and joy — but most importantly, about intimacy and resistance.

Ciro Battiloro (b. 1984, Torre del Greco) is an Italian photographer based in Naples. He studied philosophy at the University of Naples Federico II and later specialised in documentary photography. Ciro uses a very intimate approach: it is through everyday life that he tackles broader social themes. His work has been published in several magazines and exhibited in various museums, galleries and festivals.

From Publisher's website.