Models in the Window
View Similar Items
Ormond GigliModels in the Window1960
1960
About the Item
- Creator:Ormond Gigli (1925, American)
- Creation Year:1960
- Dimensions:Height: 50 in (127 cm)Width: 50 in (127 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU326240912
Ormond Gigli
Ormond Gigli (1925–2019) was a highly regarded American photojournalist, best known for his breathtaking portraiture and surreal fashion photography. With a career spanning over four decades, Gigli's visual narratives appeared in prominent international publications such as TIME, LIFE, Paris Match, and Colliers.
Gigli began his journey in the 1950s, gaining recognition for his captivating photographs of theater, film, and dance. His subjects were a medley of cultural icons — Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Anita Ekberg, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, John F. Kennedy, Halston, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Richard Burton, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and many more.
Gigli’s approach to portraiture was as much about his technical prowess and compositional elegance as it was about his ability to elicit his subject's spirit and character, a skill that would mark him as one of the luminaries of his time, akin to contemporaries such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Diane Arbus.
Yet, the pièce de résistance of Gigli's illustrious career is the iconic photograph known as Girls in the Windows, taken in 1960. This masterwork exemplifies Gigli's innovative vision and ability to transform the everyday into a tableau vivant of unparalleled aesthetic appeal. The image depicts 43 women poised in the windows of a New York City brownstone, exuding an ephemeral vibrancy that captures the essence of 1960s fashion and art photography.
Born in New York City in 1925, Gigli's passion for photography blossomed when he received his first camera from his father. After graduating from the School of Modern Photography in 1942, he served as a Navy photographer during World War II. Post-war, Gigli lived the bohemian life in Paris, before returning to New York where his career took off in 1952 after a series of celebrity portraits for LIFE magazine.
Gigli's modus operandi for Girls in the Windows was to immortalize the beauty of the soon-to-be-demolished buildings opposite his East 58th Street studio. Within the constraints of a two-hour window, Gigli meticulously arranged models, some of whom volunteered from an agency, some friends, and others being his wife and the demolition supervisor's wife. The final result was a symphony of color, form, and life, beautifully encapsulated within the frames of the brownstone windows.
Gigli recalled in an interview with TIME magazine: "What had seemed to some as too dangerous or difficult to accomplish, became my fantasy fulfilled, and my most memorable self-assigned photograph. It has been an international award winner ever since. Most professional photographers dream of having one signature picture they are known for. Girls in the Windows is mine."
Today, Girls in the Windows stands as a testament to Gigli's creativity and daring. As vibrant and evocative as it was in 1960, the photograph continues to resonate, its allure undiminished by the passage of time. Much like the timeless works of his contemporaries, Gigli's photograph is an ode to the beauty of everyday life, captured in a moment of extraordinary serendipity.
Shop authentic Ormond Gigli photography and prints on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by International Fine Arts Consortium — IFAC Arts)
- Slim Aarons 'Carmen Meyrink-Veiga'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYSlim Aarons Carmen Meyrink-Veiga, 1986 Chromogenic lambda print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Carmen Meyrink-Veiga amid her Brazilian...Category
1980s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Snorkeling Holiday (Turks and Caicos) Slim AaronsBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYSlim Aarons Snorkeling Holiday (Turks and Caicos), 1975 Chromogenic lambda print A snorkeling holiday in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, circa 1975. Estate stam...Category
1970s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Friends with surfboards in Ford MustangsBy Tom KelleyLocated in New York, NYTom Kelley Friends with surfboards in car on beach c. 1950's C print 24 x 20 inches Caption: Friends with surfboards in car on beach Tom Kelley’s interesting career spans more than...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
Price Upon Request - Friends with surfboards in Ford MustangsBy Tom KelleyLocated in New York, NYTom Kelley Friends with surfboards in car on beach c. 1950's C print 16 x 20 inches Caption: Friends with surfboards in car on beach Tom Kelley’s interesting career spans more than...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
Price Upon Request - Tom Kelley 'Woman with Umbrella'By Tom KelleyLocated in New York, NYTom Kelley Woman With Umbrella c. 1950's C print 38 x 32 inches Caption: Woman in bikini sitting on beach holding umbrella, smiling, portrait. Tom Kelley’s interesting career spa...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
Price Upon Request - Tom Kelley 'Woman with Umbrella'By Tom KelleyLocated in New York, NYTom Kelley Woman With Umbrella c. 1950's C print 38 x 32 inches Caption: Woman in bikini sitting on beach holding umbrella, smiling, portrait. Tom Kelley’s interesting career spa...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
Price Upon Request
- Faye Dunaway The Morning After, 1977 Co-Signed Edition Print by Terry O'NeillBy Terry O'NeillLocated in London, GBFaye Dunaway The Morning After, 1977 Co-Signed Edition Print by Terry O'Neill and Faye Dunaway Mint condition C print hand numbered 37 / 50 and hand signed by both photographer ...Category
1970s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Tuscany, Couple, Siena 1996By Joel MeyerowitzLocated in Surfside, FLMeyerowitz first drew acclaim for his remarkable ability to capture subtlequalities of light with the 1978 publication of Cape Light, which went on to become a color photography clas...Category
20th Century Modern Figurative Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Vintage C Print Groups in America Neal Slavin Color Photograph Ektacolor PhotoBy Neal SlavinLocated in Surfside, FLNeal Slavin (American, b. 1941) Grand Canyon National Park Service, Arizona Vintage C-print [Chromogenic development print; Ektacolor prints] Hand signed and numbered by the photogra...Category
1970s American Modern Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print
- Vintage C Print Groups in America Neal Slavin Color Photograph Ektacolor PhotoBy Neal SlavinLocated in Surfside, FLNeal Slavin (American, b. 1941) Firemen, New York City Fire Department FDNY Vintage C-print [Chromogenic development print; Ektacolor prints] Hand signed and numbered by the photogra...Category
1970s American Modern Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print
- Vintage C Print Groups in America Neal Slavin Color Photograph Ektacolor PhotoBy Neal SlavinLocated in Surfside, FLNeal Slavin (American, b. 1941) Staten Island Ferry Crew Vintage C-print [Chromogenic development print; Ektacolor prints] Hand signed and numbered by the photographer 48/75 Photos m...Category
1970s American Modern Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print
- Vintage C Print Groups in America Neal Slavin Color Photograph Ektacolor PhotoBy Neal SlavinLocated in Surfside, FLNeal Slavin (American, b. 1941) Holland Tunnel Crew, New York, NY Vintage C-print [Chromogenic development print; Ektacolor prints] Hand signed and numbered by the photographer 48/75 Photos made with 2.25 X 2.25 Hasselblad camera and 4 X 5 Calumet camera Contact printed on Kodak Ektacolor 74 RC-N paper Mat is 100% rag archival board Print measuring about 14 x 11 inches (33x26.7 cm.) or slightly smaller. image size varies a bit. Mat measures 18 X 14 In the 1970's, Neal Slavin captured a potpourri of various and sundry American groups of people: hobby groups, hot dog vendors, religious groups, social clubs, meetings, professional unions, and others. Neal Slavin (born 1941) is an American photographer and television/film director. He is the author of Portugal (1971), When Two or More are Gathered Together (1976) and Britons (1986). He directed and produced the film Focus (2001). Slavin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture in New York, where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He was awarded an exchange student scholarship at Lincoln College...Category
1970s American Modern Color Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, C Print