Storyville Portraits: Photographs from the New Orleans Red-light District, Circa 1912

"E. J. Bellocq's photographs of Storyville prostitutes became famous in 1970, when they were shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Bellocq was more or less unknown before that, but with the show and the accompanying book, his mysterious, hauntingly beautiful portraits reached a wide audience, and Bellocq became a celebrated figure in the history of photography." "The Storyville portraits, which were made around 1912, constitute the only work of Bellocq's that is known to have survived. Eighty-nine glass plates were found some years after his death, and were eventually bought by the American photographer Lee Friedlander, who printed them for the show and book sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art. The book has long been out of print, and for this new edition Friedlander has expanded the number of images from thirty-four to fifty-two, and they have been reproduced in a larger format, the size of the glass plates themselves. The text from the original edition by John Szarkowski, the former director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, is reprinted here. It is based on interviews Friedlander conducted with people who knew Bellocq - a fellow photographer, several musicians, a writer, and a former prostitute who was one of Bellocq's subjects."--Jacket.