Born in 1873, E.J. Bellocq was a successful commercial photographer in New Orleans for several decades. He is best known, however, for his private photographs of prostitutes in the legal brothels of New Orleans' Storyville red light district. Mostly taken inside the brothels, these portraits have a remarkably relaxed, intimate feel. After Bellocq's death in 1949, these photographs remained unknown for years before being discovered, purchased, restored and printed by photographer Lee Friedlander. Bellocq also reportedly photographed scenes inside the opium dens of New Orleans' Chinatown, but unfortunately none of this work survives. Bellocq's life was the inspiration for the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby, starring Keith Carradine and Brooke Shields.
ARTICLES
Rex Rose recounts the last days of E.J. Bellocq, the legendary turn-of-the-century New Orleans photographer best known for his portraits of Storyville prostitutes. Rose also discusses recent research into Bellocq's life, which illuminates some of the myths and mysteries surrounding him. (Contrary to some accounts, Bellocq was not insane, retarded, a dwarf or hydrocephalic; he was of average-height, rather handsome, and ran a successful photography business for decades.) A new exhibit of Bellocq's work will open at the Julie Saul Gallery in New York in December, including several previously unseen photographs and recently discovered early prints. Two dozen thumbnailed illustrations accompany this article. (Link snagged from Wood's Lot.)
Exquisite Corpse
Vicki Goldberg reviews a current exhibition of E. J. Bellocq's "uncommonly relaxed, respectful, complicit and engaging portraits of female sex workers." The show at Julie Saul Gallery includes thirty-five prints that have never been exhibited, including four images that have not been published. "The sitters manifest an ease, a relaxed frankness with the camera and an occasional smiling happiness that defy the usual intense and tangled seductions of sexual advertising. Posing naked or in dishabille has an obviously erotic intent, but Bellocq's pictures are less highly charged than, and never as explicit as, popular French postcards of the time. Several of his subjects, though clearly meaning to entice, pose calmly and effortlessly, as composed as any sitter before a lens, in attitudes well-dressed women might adopt. One, concealed by voluminous underclothes, lies on her stomach and plays with a little dog." More about Bellocq.
New York Times (Jan 2002)
Susan Sontag wrote the introduction to the collection Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans.
Masters of Photography
John Szarkowski discusses the work of EJ Bellocq in his book Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Masters of Photography
Jeff L. Rosenheim discusses the work of EJ Bellocq in his book The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century.
Masters of Photography
Profotos has a profile of EJ Bellocq.
Profotos
Blake Wilfong lauds the
models of Storyville who posed for and inspired EJ Bellocq, as part of his Hooker Heroes website.
Hooker Heroes
GALLERIES
Masters of Photography has
thirteen Bellocq photographs online in slideshow format (follow the next arrow at lower right of each image).
Masters of Photography
Pornokrates has a thumbnailed gallery of
ten Bellocq photographs.
Pornokrates
The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas has one untitled Bellocq photograph online.
Spencer Museum of Art
