Photo credit: Courtesy of Japan Embassy
“First thing I wanted to be in life was a garbage collector because we didn’t have much money,” Gilbert Salvadore Iberri Garcetti (Gil Garcetti to us) told Hollywood on the Potomac. “My father was an immigrant from Mexico. My mother’s parents were from Mexico. She was a meat packer. My father was a barber. I really loved the macho thing of the garbage man coming by with one guy on the outside of the truck. He’d pick up the can of trash and throw it with one hand over his shoulder into the truck. I said, ‘That’s really cool.’ Then what my dad said, ‘They make a lot of money.’ Well, okay. That’s good because they make more money than we make and I wanted to do a little better. It wasn’t until the 6th grade though when we had a career day in school that I was introduced to a lawyer. I didn’t know what a lawyer was, didn’t know what college was, didn’t know all the necessities of becoming a lawyer. I remember coming home that night and telling my parents ‘I don’t know if I’m smart enough, but I think I might try and become a lawyer because I really like what they do.'”
Gil Garcetti
“Then when I was 13 my father, who was an amateur photographer, gave me a camera,” Garcetti added. “I was always taking photographs. I just loved taking photographs, but I never thought of it as a profession. I was going to become a lawyer. I thought I should take some classes and wound up taking four and a half years in an adult night school in the San Fernando Valley – great teacher. Even when I became DA, I was still taking photographs. I had opportunities for shows but I said, ‘No, no, no. I’m the DA. I don’t want that.’ I never realized that one day this is what I was going to be doing. I would be using my experience and I guess maybe to some extent any expertise I’ve developed over the years and I think I became a better photographer than if I had become a one right out of high school.”
The occasion for our conversation was a reception hosted by Kenichiro Sasae, The Ambassador of Japan, for Garcetti, in honor of former Los Angeles Country District Attorney and author of Japan: A Reverence for Beauty, a collection of photographs taken over a five year period in Japan and essays exploring the uniqueness of the Japanese people and culture’s reverence, respect and need for beauty. In this book, “Gil Garcetti’s lush photographs, accompanied by thought-provoking essays from experts in Japanese artistic disciplines,address a unique quality of Japanese culture: the appreciation of and need for beauty—both man-made and natural—in virtually every aspect of life. For years Garcetti has been enthralled and puzzled by the reverence the Japanese people have for everyday beauty. What makes the Japanese people unique in their need for beauty? What can Westerners learn from this ancient culture and history? How can a better understanding of the role beauty plays in the daily life of the Japanese enhance our own lives? With text in English and Japanese, will immerse the reader in the daily life of this country where sublime beauty both new and ancient can be found in the most common locations. This book is a stunning tribute to the Japanese quest for beauty and an invitation to join Garcetti in a meaningful dialogue, if not final answers.” Publisher’s notes.
Photo credit: Gil Garcetti
We asked Garcetti why he chose to do a photographic essay of Japan. What fascinated you so much about their culture? Was it the observation of life? “When I went there six years ago, and I’ve been there many times before, I was going on a particular mission. I wanted to see is there was a potential photographic project there. The burden that I had was that there were thousands and thousands of photographic books about Japan because Japan is such a gorgeous country and there’s so many things to photograph. I couldn’t have just another one of those books. Let me tell you quickly what the story was that really started me on my path. My wife and I are in the mountains of Japan. We’re in a rest stop. I’m using the rest stop and I go to wash my hands. I take a double take because in the corner is a vase with one perfect yellow chrysanthemum. I just smile and shake my head and said, ‘No place in the world other than Japan are you going to have a perfect yellow chrysanthemum in a men’s toilet.’ You do, but it’s rare that you ever see any kind of decoration in the men’s toilet. I traveled widely around the world, but only in Japan … that’s the one thing that really kind of set it off. I said, ‘Wait a minute.’ The Japanese really are unique in their reverence, respect and need for beauty. They have incredible beauty there. I think, from an early age, they begin to start teaching almost like art appreciation in school. The families begin to teach that. How and why that’s done exactly, I’m not sure. I know that one of my goals is to try and perhaps empower westerners that the next time you’re out taking a walk in your neighborhood, see something that maybe you’d looked at for years, but this is the first time you’ve ever seen it.”
Heart Mountain historical marker and mountain behind – Photo credit: Creative Commons
“One of the last photographs that I show my audience, and I always use this one photograph, it’s a photograph of a woodcarving with some buildings and there are some mountains in the background. I challenge them. What is this? Most of the time people do not guess correctly. Last night, for example, when I was speaking at the Embassy of Japan, I asked that question. One person immediately spoke up and said, ‘It’s the detention facility for the Japanese.’ He was right. This is a carving, a woodcarving of Heart Mountain, Wyoming. It shows the detention facility, concentration camp, whatever you want to call it with mountains in the background. For me, the point I’m showing this was emphasizing that when the Japanese were forced out of their homes throughout the United States and sent to those camps, they could take two small suitcases with them. Usually, it was piled with clothes, and with some kitchen appliances, and bedding, things like that. There was nothing of beauty. Invariably, there was an absolute need for beauty in this carving. Someone took a piece of scrap wood that was left over, and then beautifully carved the compound with the mountains in the background, colored it. Why? Because the Japanese need beauty in their life. It’s part of their food. It’s part of their air that they must have.”
City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Wakeland Greet Prime Minister Abe and Japan’s First Lady at LAX Photo credit: Courtesy of Consulate of Japan in LA
On meeting Prime Minister Abe of Japan: “Prime Minister Abe? I met him when he came to Los Angeles. My son, who’s the mayor of Los Angeles, was able to introduce him. Then they were seated at the table next to me. I was asked to come over and I was introduced to the Prime Minister. I told him about the project that I was working on. He also knew that I had been appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Japan to the Advisory Committee on what they call Japan House. It’s going to be a facility that is built in the city of Los Angeles. They will have several throughout the world. This is to really open westerners’ eyes to Japan both in terms of food and culture, but also the politics involved in Japan.”
And yes, they take selfies…..Photo credit: Gil Garcetti
On the Japanese sense of humor: “There is one photograph in the book. It’s a very handsome man, I would say, in his early 60s who was kind of gruff looking. I saw him at a street market where he sells used clothing. He was nicely dressed and all. You never know when they speak English or not or whether they’ll admit that they speak any English. I asked him if I could take a photograph. He just looked at me and didn’t say anything. I pointed the camera. Can I take your photograph? He still didn’t say anything looking at me gruffly. When I raised my camera to take a photograph of him, he gave me this huge smile.”
Ambassador Sasae
On the reception at the Embassy of Japan: “Well, it was very interesting because as a speaker when you’re talking about a subject matter, you like to know a little more than most of the people in the audience, right? Well, I knew that in this case there are going to be a lot of people in the audience who know a lot more about my subject matter than I do. I mean, if you were born in Japan, if you are Japanese, you’re just going to know more than I do. That was the first question I actually asked them. ‘How many of you were born in Japan? How many of you were not born in Japan and still ethnic Japanese nevertheless?’ I got a feel for the audience that was there. We had a full house of people. My presentation wasn’t particularly short. It was probably 40, 45 minutes. No one walked out. No one fell asleep. They asked some very good questions after it was over.”
Photo credit: Gil Garcetti
“Some guests were there because they still remember me from a famous case or two (O.J. Simpson and Rodney King). I am used to that. I’ve been at some events where people have come up to me and said, ‘I wasn’t particularly interested in Japan. I’ve never been to Japan.’ That’s my challenge. That’s my challenge because this is a person I really want to talk to. I can give my speech to the choir, so to speak, but it’s this woman who identified herself as never having been to Japan, not interested in going to Japan, not learning anything about Japan. She just wanted to see who I was. Well, about five weeks later, the woman showed up with four other women at another lecture I was giving. She said, ‘I wound up buying your book and I want you to know that you have convinced the five of us plus our husbands that we are all going to Japan next month.’ I smiled and I said, ‘That’s a huge mistake.’ They said, ‘What?’ ‘It’s a huge mistake.’ They said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because if you go once, you’ll want to go several times.'” That’s the beauty of Japan.
