Hologram Protected COA: Yes - tamper proof hologram certification affixed to print mount verso and COA.
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FINE PHOTO GALLERIES is pleased to offer an authentic (NOT a computer scanned reprint) duotone photo engraving by the American photographer E.J. Bellocq. This atmospheric duotone print was created in the 1990's as part of a special publishing project from the original glass plate negative Bellocq made in circa 1912. This image and its glass plate negative is part of a historically significant collection of 89 original negatives recovered after his death. Bellocq made these now historic photographs with a glass plate view camera and the subjects are New Orleans, Louisiana prostitutes who worked in the then legal red light district known as "Storyville".
ABOUT E.J. BELLOCQ:
E.J. Bellocq was born in a wealthy white French Creole family in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He became an amateur photographer before setting himself up as a professional, making his living mostly by taking photographic records of landmarks and of ships and machinery for local companies. However, he also took personal photographs of the hidden side of local life, and most notably the prostitutes of Storyville. These were only known to a small number of his acquaintances. In the latter part of his life, he lived alone and acquired a reputation for eccentricity and unfriendliness.
After his death in 1949, most of his negatives and prints were destroyed. However, the Storyville negatives were later found. All the images were portraits of women with some nude, some dressed and others posed as if acting a mysterious narrative. Many of the negatives were badly damaged with some of that damage done deliberately which encouraged various speculations. Many of the faces in the images had been scraped out; whether this was done by Bellocq, his Jesuit priest brother who inherited them after E. J.'s death or someone else is unknown. Bellocq is the most likely candidate, since the damage was done while the emulsion was still wet. In other pictures the women wore masks obscuring their identity. After many years, the negatives were purchased by a noted art photographer and subsequently printed for the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City.
This duotone photo engraving is guaranteed to be authentic and comes with a hand signed CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY (COA) with unique individual registered serial number from the Fine Photo Galleries Vintage Archive & Database. The watermark word "Finephoto" does not appear on the actual print.
