GIL GARCETTI
Water Is Key—A Video Conversation About West Africa

Gil Garcetti's lifelong love for photography began with his first camera, a gift on his thirteenth birthday from his father, who was a barber in South Los Angeles. In an extraordinary journey, Garcetti went from humble beginnings to twice elected District Attorney of the County of Los Angeles from 1992 to 2000.

In 2001 he embarked on a new career, and has since created ten photographic books ranging from Iron, exploring the contribution of iron workers to the construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (foreword by Frank Gehry), to Dance In Cuba, to the exquisite flowers of Protea.

Garcetti’s Water Is Key speaks to us in a unique way, we having a longtime interest in the art and culture of Africa. Between 2001 and 2002, in a project commissioned by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and later in collaboration with Wells Bring Hope, a non-profit which he helped found, Garcetti documented the dignity, and the desperate, life changing need for safe water on the African continent. He visited the peoples of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Niger, listening to their stories, celebrating their cultures, and joining with them in efforts to bring clean water to their communities.

Garcetti’s book Water Is Key—A Better Future for Africa (2007) inspired essays by Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Mary Robinson. The photographs have been exhibited at the United Nations, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and many other venues, and have sparked a demand for Garcetti as a speaker on the subject of both photography and humanitarian efforts.

We were delighted to sit down with Garcetti at MB Abram Studios, Los Angeles. We found his story riveting, and hope you also will enjoy his passionate narrative and brilliant photographs. Watch⟶

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All photographs in Gil Garcetti’s edition were taken with a Nikon F100 camera, using Kodak Tri-X film.

“Iron”

In the summer of 2001, former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti was driving downtown and passed the rising construction site of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Garcetti was fascinated by the intricate metal design, and the acrobatic balancing of iron workers.

Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Obtaining permission to photograph and gaining the trust of the workers at their dangerous task was a considerable challenge, but Garcetti was determined to capture the gargantuan effort to build the superstructure before it was forever hidden by an envelope of polished steel.

While at the time few knew of Garcetti’s interest in photography, this had actually been a lifelong passion, starting with the gift of a camera from his father when he was thirteen years of age, growing up in South Los Angeles. Even as DA, he carried a pocket camera everywhere in his off-hours.

Garcetti’s photographs became the book “Iron” with a foreword penned by Frank Gehry, an admirer of his artistic accomplishment.

We are happy to present a selection of these photos, available in a limited edition, and were delighted to sit down with Gil at MB Abram Studios, Los Angeles, to discuss his almost two years documenting the Walt Disney Concert Hall construction. Seen in the background of the video is June Wayne's tapestry Grande Vague Bleue, and an African marimba created by the late Ashanti Royal drummer Kwasi Badu, this hand cut from iron tubes.

GIL GARCETTIWater Is Key—A Video Conversation About West Africa

“Iron”

Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall

GIL GARCETTI
Water Is Key—A Video Conversation About West Africa