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Gil Garcetti

Gil Garcetti

From DA to photographer: Gil Garcetti to speak on the justice system, photography

Gil Garcetti, professional photographer and former Los Angeles District Attorney during the OJ Simpson case, is coming to UNM to talk about race, the media, the justice system and photography in a presentation entitled, “The OJ Trial and Beyond: ‘OJ: Made in America’ Lessons for ‘Justice.’”

Garcetti served 32 years as an LA district attorney, overseeing high profile cases such as the OJ Simpson trial, the Menendez Brothers trial, the LAPD Rampart police scandal and the Michael Jackson trials.

Later in life, he became an internationally renowned photographer and UNESCO ambassador, traveling around the world to give speeches on environmental issues and his photography.

To top it all off, his son, Eric Garcetti, is the mayor of Los Angeles.

“He’s just an amazing dude,” Associate Provost and UNM History Professor Virginia Scharff said. “This is somebody who was involved in some of the biggest events of the twentieth century. The lecture will really be about his journey through all of these events.”

Scharff said Garcetti will be showing his photographs at the lecture, and his most recent project is about women and children in West African villages and their dire need for clean water, adding that he’s still very concerned with social justice issues.

“Right now all of us are dealing with political tension, particularly around race. It’s a part of every news story. It’s a part of our daily lives,” Scharff said. “With the current presidential campaign and police violence, the social unrest right now is really painful. This is someone who has figured out how to turn that pain into something positive and meaningful.”

Garcetti said he will be speaking on the broader picture involving the cases he oversaw and race relations in LA in 1994, bringing the talk to what is going on throughout the country right now in terms of officer-involved shootings.

“His story says something about personal resilience during tense times, and that’s always worth hearing,” she said.

Garcetti’s father was born in Mexico and his mother was one of 19 children of the same mother and father. His father was a barber and his mother packed meat. He said his father did not read or write very well or graduate from any level of school.

Garcetti said he grew up wanting to become a garbage collector.

“I loved the macho image of the garbage collector. My dad also told me they made a lot of money, and by our standards, they did,” he said. “You don’t have to come from a wealthy family. This country gives us unique opportunities.”

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Garcetti said he was introduced to a lawyer in the sixth grade who inspired him, and he ended up going to UCLA for law school, where he witnessed the 1968 riots.

“I saw young people being brutalized. The police did not have a good reputation,” he said. “I wanted to protect those who were wrongfully accused and brutalized by the police.”

His goal was to become a trial lawyer for the public defender’s office, but he realized the best place to achieve his goal would be at the district attorney’s office.

“That’s the seat of authority in the justice system,” he said.

Garcetti moved up quickly, working second only to the DA for four years. He was elected LA district attorney in 1992, serving for two terms during some of the most important social dramas of American history.

“I don’t know if consciously or unconsciously in high profile cases the jurors raise the standard a bit,” he said. “The situation with OJ was, people simply did not want to believe he did it.”

Garcetti said people did not want to believe Michael Jackson was guilty either.

“Any kind of hero or anyone with a large following, it’s going to be tough to get them convicted,” he said. “It’s the same thing with police officers. Jurors don’t like to convict police officers.”

Garcetti said that after his time serving as DA, he could have joined a law firm and made a lot of money. He had carried around a camera with him all the time, even while he was serving as DA, and decided instead he wanted to try art photography.

Garcetti published a photography book and he received much praise for his photographs.

“I was teaching at Harvard at the time when the book came out, and the power of the media really propelled me,” he said. “The LA Times and other newspapers published articles complimenting me as a photographer.”

Garcetti then received an invitation to show his photographs at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

“There are photographers who just want to have one photograph in any museum,” he said.

But about a hundred of Garcetti’s photographs of iron workers were shown at the exhibition, and his work has since been shown in other museums as well.

“There are many people in my audience who are better photographers, but I was trained as a lawyer. I was taught to think in a different way,” he said. “If you’re sensitive to what is going on around you, and you’ve been exposed to important issues, it contributes to your judgement. When I take a photograph, I look at how can I communicate a larger story.”

Garcetti said when he was first being asked to speak around the country about his photographs, he was introduced as the former LA district attorney.

“I told people to stop doing that. If people want to introduce me as the father of the mayor of Los Angeles, that’s very cool. I’ll let them do that,” he said, laughing.

Garcetti said those who attend his lecture can expect candidness from him and examples of things that will surprise them about the OJ Simpson case that they may have not heard before. The lecture is Thursday at 5 p.m. at George Pearl Hall.

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