E.J. Bellocq was a rather interesting character. According to a few sources he was "deformed", in what way I'm not sure, and anti-social. A commercial photographer in New Orleans by trade, Bellocq kept the photos that meant the most to him under his sofa. These were photographs of the prostitutes in the infamous red light district "Storyville" in New Orleans, and the opium dens of Chinatown. Most of his negatives were destroyed after his death, but the Storyville ones were found, bought, and later published in a book called "Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville". A lot of the faces in these photos were scratched out. No one really knows who by; either Bellocq, his brother, or perhaps someone who didn't care for the photos.
I think that these photos are really good because they're not focused on having the women posed in provocative positions or anything like that, but more about them being where they're most comfortable. Making it more about them as a person rather than how they made a living, so they're more relatable. What do you think of them?
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