E.J. Bellocq, born to a wealthy Creole family in the French Quarter of New Orleans, was a man that very few knew anything about. He was a professional photographer that made his living shooting for local companies and most frequently photographed large ships. However, it was not until after his death in 1949 that the glass plates were discovered in his desk drawer. There were nearly 100 of them, and all in varying degrees of decay. No one is sure as to whether this was a commercial project or not, but most assume that they were not, due to the comfortable and relaxed nature of the images. And while there is no documentation of the Storyville series, one would speculate that this was a personal project developed out of Bellocq's love and fascination of women within the red light district of New Orleans. As I said above, there is an unmistakable familiarity between Bellocq and his subjects. However, what exactly drove him to make this series will never be known.
I found myself drawn to Bellocq's work because of the raw, natural, and textured qualities of both the images and the plates. I believe that he respected these women and praised their courage to break the social mold. Prostitution, and especially documenting it was a very taboo thing to do in this time period (approx. 1901-1915). It was almost as if he wanted to be apart of their world and had no other medium to do so. I also enjoyed his mysteriousness of some of these photos where the women's faces had been intentionally scratched out as to protect their identity. Bellocq managed to capture the raw beauty of these women and what they represented while shooting them in both their homes and brothels. He brought to life their humanness when I'm sure that society was in a constant battle to strip this from them. Something else that needs to be noted on a pure aesthetic note are the glass plates themselves and the cracks and chips that run through them in a way that only enhances the subjects. They really compliment each other in a beautiful fashion.
This series raises a few questions more about Bellocq than it does society. We know today that photographing nudes is still taboo to most but that it is definitely being more accepted now than it was then. So the questions I have come from the mysterious relationship that Bellocq held with these women. Was he a frequent customer or did he just enjoy their world and physical beauty? Was it a documentary or more about the human form in the nude? These are questions we will never have the answers for yet are still worth posing.