John Ernest Joseph Bellocq was an american photographer who lived in Storville, New Orleans. He dedicated a big part of his work and life documenting the darker side of his town notably the prostitutes and the opium dens. Most of these portraits dates from around 1912, a period when the bordellos were legal in Storyville. These photographs would have disappeared if it wasn’t for Lee Friedlander. Apparently the 8 x 10 glass plates were found in Bellocq drawers after he died. These were purchased by a collector named Larry Borenstein who showed them to Friedlander. He decided that these were too beautiful not to be preserved and seen so he printed the glass plates and this resulted in a major touring show and publication, Storyville Portraits organized by the Museum of Modern Art, in 1970-71. There is a lot of speculation about why the faces are scratched on some of the photograph. Some believe that they were done by his brother of was a Priest. One plausible explanation is that it was done by Bellocq himself to protect the identity of  the girl, and the fact that they were probably scratched when the emulsion was wet. Still it has kept a very mystical aspect to his work that inspired a lot of others artists.