Mother India School – English version

Biography

Shobha was born in Palermo, Italy, daughter of Letizia Battaglia.

In 1980 she starts photo reporting for the daily newspaper “L’Ora”. Her pictures portray Sicily’s political and social world during the years of the “mafia war”, of slaughters and of “excellent murders”, as well as international subjects with special attention to women.

In 1998 Shobha receives the World Press Photo award for “Gli ultimi gattopardi” a reportage on Sicily’s aristocracy.

In 2001 Shobha is awarded the Hansel-Mieth Preis for the reportage “Church and the Mafia” with journalist Petra Reski.

In 2002 Shobha receives again the World Press Photo award for a reportage on African fashion of the stylist Oumou-Sy. In the same year she is invited to participate in the Festival Inetrnacional de Fotografis Femeninos in Madrid, Spain.

Shobha has travelled thoroughout the world for many years and her works have been published by leading newspapers and magazines among which (to mention just a few): Time, The New York Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, Stern, Der Spiegel, Zeit Magazine, Geo, Madame Figaro Magazine, Blanco y Negro, Il venerdì di Repubblica, Sette del Corriere della Sera, Panorama, L’Espresso, D-Donna, Io donna, Vanity Fair, Max, and Amica.

Last year Shobha has conducted a photo workshop with a group of boys and girls suffering from Down’s syndrome and realised “A story of love”, a photo book, an exhibition and a documentary filmed during the six months of the workshop.

Presently Shobha lives between Palermo, Italy, and Goa, India, where she runs photo workshops and various related activities.

Since 1992 Shobha has been a member of the Contrasto Agency.

SHOBHA
Shobha was born in Palermo, Italy, in 1954. In 1970 she moved to Milano and studied music at the Conservatory. In 1975 she moved to India and devoted herself to meditation and got specialised in oriental music. From 1978 to 1982 she lived in the USA.

In 1982, back in Palermo, she starts photo reporting for the daily newspaper “L’Ora” with her mother Letizia Battaglia.

Her pictures portray Sicily’s political and social world during the years of the “mafia war”. “Women and the Mafia”, one of Shobha’s most important photo reportages, was published by leading newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

With journalist Petra Reski Shobha carried out a book on Rita Atria and mafia repentants published in Germany by Hoffmann und Kampe, and with Marcelle Padovani a book on Palermo told by Giovanni Falcone, published in Spain.

In 1985 she reopened in Palermo the “Laboratorio d’IF”, a centre of photographic culture, founded by her mother Letizia Battaglia in the seventies, where she organized courses, photo exhibitions, and reviews with major international photo reporters.

In 1987 Shobha started getting involved with social themes and international political issues and moved to Cuba as a correspondent for several newspapers and magazines, both Italian and international. With journalist Alessandra Riccio Shobha carried out two books: “Congratulations, Commander! A baby girl was born” and “Women in Cuba” published in Italy by Le Edizioni della Battaglia and in France by Desmart.

In the same years Shoba made two unpublished reportages: one in Cuba on Assata Shankur, a leader of the Black Panthers who escaped from a maximum security jail in the USA, and one telling Silvia Baraldini in an American jail.

Shobha is a versatile photographer, involved with fashion pictures too, always seen mainly from a social viewpoint. In Cuba she carried out, against the embargo, an important fashion report with personalities of the Cuban revolution used as models.

In 1995 Shobha did features on contemporary art and worked with several artists among whom Rosemarie Trockel. In the same year she participated in the 46th Biennale in Venice.

In 1998 Shobha received the World Press Photo Award for a reportage on Sicily’s aristocracy, a project which took over twenty years to complete and in 1999 became an exhibition and a book titled “The last Gattopardi” cared by Paolo Falcone and published by Contrasto.

In 2000 Shobha was invited by the Iraqi Society for Photography and reported on Saddam Hussein’s birthday just before the first Gulf war.

In 2001 Shobha was awarded the Hansel-Mieth Preis for the reportage “Church and the Mafia” in cooperation with journalist Petra Reski.

In the same year she founded with Paolo Falcone the Micromuseum for contemporary arts and culture in Palermo.

In 2002 Shobha received again the World Press Photo Award for a reportage on fashion in Senegal, which then became an exhibition and a book titled “The angels of the Medina”. In the same year she was invited to participate in the Photoespana, el festival international de fotografia femeninos in Madrid, Spain.

In 2003 Shobha carried out for UNICEF, in cooperation with La Repubblica’s weekly magazine “Il Venerdì”, a photo reportage on children trade in Moldavia.

In 2004 Shobha received the Mario Giacomelli prize, in memory of Osvaldo Buzzi in Benevento.

In 2006 showed her works, with her mother Letizia Battaglia’s, in the exhibition “Violence and pain, news from Sicily” in Corigliano Calabro, and later on presented at the “museo diffuso della resistenza” in Torino “Pain” a video installation on women who suffered violence especially by the mafia with music by Giovanni Sollima.

In 2005 Shobha carried out a project on autistic teen agers, documenting their daily life, from which took origin “Confetti of love”, published by ADA Comunicazioni.

In 2006 and 2007 Shobha organises and conducts a photo workshop with a group of boys and girls suffering from Down’s syndrome. A photo book, a documentary filmed by Luciana Zarini and Maurizio Spadaro, with music by Giovanni Sollima and Alessandro Gandola, and an exhibition opened in 2007 in Palermo took origin of this six months experience. This exhibition was then hosted in Brescia at the festival “Disability”, and in 2008 inaugurated a series of exhibitions at the Paolo Uccello Home Museum in Palazzolo Acreide.

In 2007 Shobha performed the main character in the short movie “Vulcano” directed by Francesco Petierno, a video about the island of Vulcano seen through her photos.

In 2008 Shobha and Letizia Battaglia were invited to participate in the “Festival des Tops” in China with their work on Sicily’s aristocracy and the mafia.

Shobha has been a member of the Contrasto agency since 1992.

Shobha’s works have been published by leading newspapers and magazines in Italy and abroad, among which (to mention just a few): Geo, Zeit Magazine, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, the weekly supplements of La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera, Specchio, L’Espresso, and Vanity Fair.

Presently Shobha lives between Palermo and India, where she keeps organising photo reportages and artistic projects and in 2007 opened the school of photography “Mother India”.

In 2009 it exhibits with Letizia Battaglia & Shobha” Anger&Silence” to the Gallery METIS -Metis- NL Amsterdam. In the same year it comes invited from Planeta (Wines) to photograph the Sicily. A project of 4 hands with Costanzas Algranti that works with the concept of the I re-use. It is born of it a Show, a video and a book, edition Planeta I Travel in Sicily. Botanical garden of Palermo 2009/2010 in Germany.

In 2010 it Wins ll I reward Civitas.