Ormond Gigli

Ormond Gigli (1925–2019) was an American photographer whose versatile career captured the glamour and grit of mid‑20th‑century culture. Born in New York City in 1925, he received his first camera as a teenager and graduated from the School of Modern Photography in 1942. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy as a photographer, gaining invaluable experience processing and shooting images under pressure.

After the war, Gigli apprenticed briefly at the Rapho photo agency. In 1952, a Life editor tapped him to replace Robert Capa for a series of celebrity portraits, and that same year Life sent him to cover the Paris fashion shows—his center‑spread debut cemented his reputation as a fashion photographer. In 1954 he opened a studio on Manhattan’s East 65th Street, where he shot theatre luminaries, dancers, and screen stars. His groundbreaking portraits include early images of Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, John F. Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe, many of which appeared on the covers and inside pages of Life, Time, Paris Match, Collier’s, and the Saturday Evening Post.

Gigli’s directorial approach to photography—staking out complex, sometimes risky setups and putting subjects at ease—yielded candid yet meticulously composed shots that reveal both persona and process. His 1960 self‑assigned photograph Girls in the Windows (models arranged across the façade of a brownstone opposite his studio) became one of the most collected and highest‑grossing images of all time, illustrating his blend of imaginative staging and technical mastery.

In the 1970s and ’80s Gigli expanded into advertising while continuing editorial assignments that took him around the globe. His work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography and featured in anthologies of fashion and portrait art. Until his passing in 2019, he remained celebrated for a body of work that spans celebrity portraiture, street fashion, and inventive self‑initiated projects—each marked by a rare combination of elegance, empathy, and theatrical flair.