"Pretty Baby" Photograph Inspiration

A few months ago at the Arts Market of New Orleans in Palmer Park where I sell my art one of my visitors was an author by the name of Cher from Atlanta. She has written a book about a prostitute, Julia Bulette, who was from Louisiana and was murdered in Virginia City, NV.

Our conversation turned to the Bellocq photographs, this one in particular. The girl's name was Addie Colleen McCarthy and she was 13 or 14 when this picture was taken in 1912. She was born 1898 in New Orleans to an Octoroon or Creole mother who abandoned her. She was adopted by a widow woman named Ellen McCarthy who lived at N. Liberty and Conti Street, which was right in the middle of Storyville. How she ended up as a prostitute is unknown. But knowing what we do about the lifestyles of those days and how young girls were caught in this life so easily, it is not an uncommon end.

You must admit - there is an uncanny resemblence of this girl to Brooke Shields who played the part of Violet in the movie which was inspired by this photograph. And it has been written that of all the photographs of EJ Bellocq's, this one portrays a sense of inappropriateness on the part of Bellocq and reluctance on the part of this girl.

Check my website for some of my pieces made with this haunting photograph.

Juliette