Gil Garcetti prosecutes a new cause – shooting photos that make a difference
The D.A. who prosecuted O.J. Simpson recommends following your passion to a second career if it's not in your first.
from the October 18, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
"It was quite intimidating at first," he recalls. "A lot of students there drove fancy sports cars, and I had my '53 Plymouth. But I've always enjoyed people and I became more self-confident, in terms of realizing they were coming from a different place than I was, but that I could hold my own."
Likewise, the entry into his photographic vocation was not larkish dabbling: He took night classes and weekend courses for years to develop his skills.
Ultimately, he put down his briefcase for good and picked up his camera six months after he left office. As he was driving by the Disney Hall site one day, he was so struck by the men at work that he grabbed his camera, took a shot, and began the project that would become his first photo book.
Garcetti says he's never looked back, never wondered if he made the right choice to leave his legal career behind. He still gets asked about those days, especially about the Simpson trial and the role it played as a defining moment in contemporary American race relations. Garcetti says he meets an occasional white person who's angry with him over the not-guilty verdict, but that he never encounters criticism from blacks.
He remembers clearly the hours and hours he spent agonizing over how he would respond publicly to a verdict when it came in. He knew what he would say if the verdict was guilty or if there was a hung jury. But he says he didn't know what to say if the decision was not guilty. He called civic and religious leaders in the black community, asking advice. He even met with Jimmy Carter, when the former president was in L.A. to build homes with Habitat for Humanity.
"He still had his tool belt on," recalls Garcetti. "I went through the whole scenario for him and he said, 'Well, they'll find him not guilty. This is payback time. We know that many innocent blacks have been convicted and executed. There's nothing that you or anyone else can say that will heal this. It's going to take five to seven years before black people and white people start talking to one another again.'
"He scared me," says Garcetti. "But he was right."
Ask the former D.A. today which career satisfaction is greater, winning a trial or taking a good photograph, and he doesn't hesitate: "I would say it has to be a photograph. Because getting a conviction means there is someone who is still hurt, who has maybe lost someone. Getting a conviction is not going to make that person whole.
"But a photograph can change someone's life in a positive way," he says.
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