An expanded and revised edition of the famous book of portraits of prostitutes in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, the inspiration for the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. This new edition includes 52 tritone photos printed in a large format. The text from the original edition--by John Szarjowski, former director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art--is reprinted here, along with a new Introduction by Susan Sontag.
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An expanded and revised edition of the famous book of portraits of prostitutes in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, the inspiration for the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. This new edition includes 52 tritone photos printed in a large format. The text from the original edition--by John Szarjowski, former director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art--is reprinted here, along with a new Introduction by Susan Sontag.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. First Edition. Dust jacket covers show some rubbing, scuffing and shelf wear. Dust jacket edges show some light bumping, flaring and scuffing.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good++ in a Very Good++ dust jacket; Hardcover; Dust jacket is clean and glossy with no tears, and has not been price-clipped (Now fitted with a new, Brodart jacket protector); Unmarked boards with "straight" edge-corners; Unblemished textblock edges; The endpapers and all text pages are clean and unmarked; The binding is excellent with a straight spine; This book will be shipped in a sturdy cardboard box with foam padding; Large Format (11.75"-12.75" tall); Black and white photo of a woman to the dust jacket with title in white lettering; 1996, Random House Publishing; 83 pages; "Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans, " by John Szarkowski.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Hardcover. 4to. Published by Random House, New York. 1996. 83 pgs. Illustrated with 33 Black and White Plates. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has light shelf-wear present to the DJ extremities (spine ends lightly scuffed). Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. The famous book of portraits of prostitutes in turn-of-the-century New Orleans and the inspiration for the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. The text is by John Szarjowski, former director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. John Ernest Joseph Bellocq (1873–1949) was an American professional photographer who worked in New Orleans during the early 20th century. Bellocq is remembered for his haunting photographs of the prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans' legalized red light district. These have inspired novels, poems and films. EB; 12 X 0.5 X 12.25 inches; 83 pages.
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Seller's Description:
Book. Quarto, 83 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Spine black with red and white lettering. Dust jacket protected in mylar covering. Minor shelf wear. Scuffing to rear cover. Textblock clean. Features full-page photographs throughout. Shelved in Case 11. 1378311. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Storyville was a legalized red light district in New Orleans that functioned beginning in 1897 until it was closed in 1917 under pressure from the military. In 1912, an obscure commercial photographer, E.J. Bellocq (1873 -- 1949) made a series of photographs of prostitutes working in Storyville. The photos were little-known until they were shown at an exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in 1970. MOMA published a book of the photographs in 1970 that went out-of-print and was subsequently expanded in 1996 into this book, "Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, The Red-Light District of New Orleans" which also appears to be now out-of-print. The book includes 52 of Bellocq's photographs as compared with the 34 of the MOMA volume and includes as well an introduction by Susan Sontag and interviews about Bellocq and his photos.
Bellocq seems to have taken these photos simply for himself but their origin remains unknown. The highly evocative photographs have come to symbolize Storyville. Bellocq's carefully posed photos show some of the women in full dress while others are nude. The photos manage to be both revealing of the character of their subjects and also enigmatic. They also allow a glimpse at the interiors of Storyville brothels, which have long been destroyed.
I recently revisited this book of Storyville prostitutes after many years. There is something fascinating about this place and its women. Bellocq's photos get inside his subjects and allow viewers to reflect upon the women and their lives.
Bellocq's photographs have a distant echo in the famous photographer Susan Meiselas' book "Carnival Strippers" which documents the women working in girlie shows in small New England carnivals in the early 1970s. These carnivals, like the Storyville brothels, are no more. As did Bellocq, Meiselas was able to win the trust of her subjects and to provide insight through her photography into their lives. Meiselas' book has been re-issued in several editions, most recently in "Carnival Strippers-- Revisited" (2022) which I have reviewed here on Goodreads. Bellocq's and Meiselas' photographs capture something of the mysterious nature of human sexuality when it is commodified, but never lost.
