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Silence is a Gift
Silence is a Gift
Ciro Battiloro
January 24, 2025
Ciro Battiloro’s work deals intensively with human relationships. Over the years, he has accompanied a number of people into the protected spaces of their homes in Naples and southern Italy. With Silence is a Gift, Battiloro offers a glimpse into family lives and sentimental relationships. He finds that his emotionally-charged studies stand in contrast to the hustle and bustle of life outside the front door.
Silence is a Gift is Battiloro’s first book, published by Chose Commune. The photographer shares his thoughts about the body of work he produced between 2015 and 2021.
LFI: What is Silence is a Gift about?
Ciro Battiloro: It is about intimacy. Intimacy is something extraordinary, it reveals the uniqueness of every human life. Intimacy in the sense of closeness, proximity, becomes a form of silent and discreet resistance, and can be a last refuge from the passing of time, from existential crises and from all the disrupting factors that contemporary society imposes on us: homologation, trivialisation, social inequalities and violence. Intimacy is made of relationships – those lived, those desired, those lost.
Where does the title to the series, Silence is a Gift, come from?
The title of my book is taken from a sentence I wrote while wandering around Rione Sanità one Sunday afternoon just after lunch, which is one of the rare moments when silence reigns in the neighbourhood. The sentence read, “Silence is a rare gift for these alleyways, but in its intimate revelation you discover the naked and immense soul of a forgotten humanity.” The title then becomes a declaration of intent and a manifesto for my aesthetics.
Why did you chose to photograph in Naples and southern Italy?
I have the impression that around southern Italy and particularly around Naples, there is often a trend to have narratives that have to shock in some way, make noise, attract attention by exploiting stereotypes and folklore, but in all this noise and media chatter, the real experiences of these contexts – that represent a wealth and preserve historical memory – disappear. My images go in the opposite direction. Silence is a Gift is about love and loneliness, life and death, pain and joy, but above all, intimacy.
You have said that there are places in southern Italy that carry scars of incurable wounds on the walls and on the flesh of its inhabitants. What places do you mean and why?
There are three locations in the book, mainly the Rione Sanità in Naples, then the Santa Lucia district of Cosenza and some pictures of my home town, Torre del Greco. The photos were taken from 2015 to 2021. They are working class areas that have suffered situations of social disadvantage and marginalisation for years and still do, and which are changing today due to processes of gentrification and touristification. But they are places where, above all, an authenticity of the human being is preserved – and this is its wealth.
Carla Susanne ErdmannSilence is a Gift is Battiloro’s first book, published by Chose Commune. The photographer shares his thoughts about the body of work he produced between 2015 and 2021.
LFI: What is Silence is a Gift about?
Ciro Battiloro: It is about intimacy. Intimacy is something extraordinary, it reveals the uniqueness of every human life. Intimacy in the sense of closeness, proximity, becomes a form of silent and discreet resistance, and can be a last refuge from the passing of time, from existential crises and from all the disrupting factors that contemporary society imposes on us: homologation, trivialisation, social inequalities and violence. Intimacy is made of relationships – those lived, those desired, those lost.
Where does the title to the series, Silence is a Gift, come from?
The title of my book is taken from a sentence I wrote while wandering around Rione Sanità one Sunday afternoon just after lunch, which is one of the rare moments when silence reigns in the neighbourhood. The sentence read, “Silence is a rare gift for these alleyways, but in its intimate revelation you discover the naked and immense soul of a forgotten humanity.” The title then becomes a declaration of intent and a manifesto for my aesthetics.
Why did you chose to photograph in Naples and southern Italy?
I have the impression that around southern Italy and particularly around Naples, there is often a trend to have narratives that have to shock in some way, make noise, attract attention by exploiting stereotypes and folklore, but in all this noise and media chatter, the real experiences of these contexts – that represent a wealth and preserve historical memory – disappear. My images go in the opposite direction. Silence is a Gift is about love and loneliness, life and death, pain and joy, but above all, intimacy.
You have said that there are places in southern Italy that carry scars of incurable wounds on the walls and on the flesh of its inhabitants. What places do you mean and why?
There are three locations in the book, mainly the Rione Sanità in Naples, then the Santa Lucia district of Cosenza and some pictures of my home town, Torre del Greco. The photos were taken from 2015 to 2021. They are working class areas that have suffered situations of social disadvantage and marginalisation for years and still do, and which are changing today due to processes of gentrification and touristification. But they are places where, above all, an authenticity of the human being is preserved – and this is its wealth.
ALL IMAGES ON THIS PAGE: © Ciro Battiloro
EQUIPMENT: Leica M6, Elmarit-M 28 f/2.8 Asph, Voigtländer Color Skopar 35
LFI 1.2025+-
Battiloro's photo series about the hard everyday life of fishermen and life by the sea in Normandy can be found in LFI Magazine 1.2025. More
Ciro Battiloro+-
Born in Torre del Greco, Italy in 1984, Battiloro studied Philosophy at the University Federico II in Naples. He is a self-taught photographer. His work has been published in magazines such as, LFI (8.2018), Der Spiegel, Die Nacht, Gup and Burn. His series have been exhibited at international festivals such as the Helsinki Photo Festival, Planches Contact, Photo Is:rael and Cortona on the Move. Silence is a Gift is his first book and appeared in March 2024. More
