Object of Lust: Ormond Gigli's "Girls in the Windows"

When I was at the San Francisco 20th Century Art and Design Show a couple of weeks ago, I was drawn to a framed photographic print that one of the dealers there had on display. I don't recall the exact price, but do remember that it was somewhere in the low five figures -- enough to make me let out a long, low whistle.

Still, I was absolutely gobsmacked by the image, of several dozen glamorously attired women precariously posed in the glassless windows of a row of decrepit buildings, and wrote down the title and the photographer's name so that I could look it up when I got home.

Turns out that the photograph, called "Girls in the Windows," is the signature piece of photographer Ormond Gigli, who shot for such publications as Life, Paris Match, and the Saturday Evening Post. (Does everyone know about him but me? Damn, I wish I'd taken some art appreciation classes in college ... )

Gigli took the photo in 1960, before a bank of brownstones across the street from his own Manhattan apartment was torn down. "I was inspired to somehow immortalize those buildings. I had the vision of 43 women in formal dress adorning the windows of the skeletal facade," Gigli writes. "The day before the buildings were razed, the 43 women ... climbed the old stairs and took their places in the windows. I was set up on my fire escape across the street, directing the scene, with bullhorn in hand. Of course I was concerned for the models' safety, as some were daring enough to pose out on the crumbling sills."

I had hoped that I might be able to find an open-edition print of the photo a little closer to my price range. But, alas, the only copies I could track down are sold through exclusive galleries -- the kind that make you call to find out the price. Judging from the fact that other "Girls" prints have sold at auction for upwards of $35,000, I'm not holding out much hope that the answer will be anything I can stomach -- or that I'll find a repro of this piece for $20 at Prints R Us.

What's the term for this sort of "love it; will never, ever be able to afford it" ennui? Oh yeah: Le sigh ...