New Orleans photographer Ernest J Bellocq has been a major influence on my work. Bellocq was a commercial photographer active in the early part of the 20th Century. The photos featured here are a small selection of images from 89 glass plate negatives found in his apartment after his death in 1949. They are believed to have been taken around 1912 and feature prostitutes from the legalised red light district known as Storyville that operated in New Orleans between 1897 and 1917.
The negatives turned up in Sal Ruiz's antique shop around 1958 and were bought by Larry Borenstein (owner of the art gallery...