Ernest Joseph Bellocq (19 August 1873 – 3 October 1949)[2] 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.

[3] However, he also took personal photographs of the hidden side of local life, notably the opium dens in Chinatown[4] and the prostitutes of Storyville.

A more extensive collection of Friedlander's prints, entitled Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, was published with an introduction by Susan Sontag in 1996.

[citation needed] In recent times, a significant number of prints from Bellocq's own studio have come to light.

A number of early posthumous prints from Bellocq's negatives by photographer Dan Leyrer have also surfaced.

There are several collections of poems, notably Brooke Bergan's Storyville: A Hidden Mirror[10] and Natasha Trethewey's Bellocq's Ophelia.

The 1983 novel Fat Tuesday by R. Wright Campbell features a thinly-veiled depiction of Bellocq, a photographer named B.E.