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.

Even while in public office, Garcetti carried a pocket camera, exploring in his off hours the world around him.

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 and honored 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⟶

Inquire