A lifelong resident of New Orleans, Ernest J. Bellocq was a commercial photographer who undertook a personal quest to photograph the prostitutes of Storyville, the city’s red-light district. In these frank and intimate photographs, women are not portrayed as prey to the camera’s gaze, but rather seem to participate willingly and confidently in the photographic act. Rumored to be eccentric and reserved, Bellocq told only a handful of acquaintances about these portraits, which primarily date from 1912 (the negatives were later discovered and printed by photographer Lee Friedlander). | text source: AIC

The glass plate negatives were not discovered until after his death in 1949, which is why so many of the images are cracked, scratched, and damaged. It is said that some of the damages were deliberately inflicted by Bellocq while the emulsion was still wet, in order to protect the identity of the sex workers.