E. J. Bellocq - The Storyville Portraits

This is one of 89 glass negatives found by the New Orleans art dealer Larry Borenstein, hidden in the desk of the late photographer E.J. Bellocq - They were subsequently purchased by Lee Friedlander and enlarged using 'Printing Out Paper' [POP] which was popular at the turn of the 20th Century.

Little is known about Bellocq, other than he was a photographer for a shipping company called the 'Foundation Company' and worked in and around the New Orleans area during the early part of the 20th Century – the 89 found negatives are stated to be his only surviving works.

The portraits depict prostitutes working in the ‘Storyville’ area of New Orleans around 1912.  They are intriguing as the photographer has clearly shown respect to the sitters and in turn they are willing subjects.  The names and origins of the women are unknown, but Bellocq has made no attempt to eliminate any artefacts of the time or place from each individual portrait.

The works were exhibited in 1970 in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.