Storyville Portrait

Art Historical Context

**Storyville Portrait** by E.J. Bellocq (c. 1912, printed c. 1970) captures the intimate world of New Orleans' Storyville district, the city's legally sanctioned red-light area from 1897 to 1917. This gelatin silver print, measuring 9 15/16 x 7 7/8 inches, is one of Bellocq's surviving portraits of the women who lived and worked there. Discovered decades after his death in 1949, his glass-plate negatives were printed posthumously, bringing his empathetic gaze to light in the 1960s and 1970s. Bellocq, a reclusive photographer active in early 20th-century New Orleans, documented Storyville with a tender directness rare for the era. His portraits humanize their subjects, often posed in modest interiors with personal details like masks or furniture, defying the era's voyeuristic stereotypes. The gelatin silver process yields rich tonal range and fine detail, while the late printing preserves the original's soft focus and subtle imperfections—scratches and vignettes that add emotional depth. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Department of Photographs through the Patrons' Permanent Fund, this work highlights photography's power to reveal hidden lives. Bellocq's images remain culturally vital, offering a poignant glimpse into marginalized histories and the artistry of vernacular portraiture.

About the Artist

E.J. Bellocq · 1873–1949

Ernest Joseph Bellocq (1873–1949) was born into an aristocratic white Creole family in New Orleans on August 19, 1873. His father, Paul Bellocq, worked as a bookkeeper, while his mother, Marie, came from a wealthy French merchant family; his younger brother, Leo, became a Jesuit priest and Bellocq's sole heir. Raised near the French Opera House in comfortable circumstances, Bellocq received a clas...