First edition of Storyville Portraits : Photographs from the New Orleans red-light district, circa 1912 by E.J. Bellocq. First impression. Medium format softback in good condition. Some shelf wear to the edges of the front and back cover, otherwise, all pages are clean and spine is intact. Please see photographs for reference.
About
A lifelong resident of New Orleans, Ernest J. Bellocq was a commercial photographer who undertook a personal quest to photograph the prostitutes of Storyville, the citys red-light district. In these frank and intimate photographs, women are not portrayed as prey to the cameras gaze, but rather seem to participate willingly and confidently in the photographic act. Rumored to be eccentric and reserved, Bellocq told only a handful of acquaintances about these portraits, which primarily date from 1912 (the negatives were later discovered and printed by photographer Lee Friedlander). This photograph of Bellocqs desk, therefore, provides an unusual glimpse into his mysterious personality and life. The cluttered arrangement of images of women, juxtaposed with floral wallpaper and languidly posing marble figurines, coheres into a dotingly composed shrine to femininity, hinting at the artists admiration for women.
