SLIDESHOW: Transsexual Hookers of New York's Meatpacking District

In the not so distant past, before Manhattan's Meatpacking District became known as MePa and was the home to gross loser clubs and limousine gridlock, the neighborhood was ground zero for transsexual hookers.

There was the sex club J's Hangout and the killer tiny underground concert venue The Cooler and a bagel factory and that's about it.

The bagel place would throw the bagels out at night onto the sidewalk (maybe to feed rats?) so the sidewalks were filled with transsexual prostitutes stomping on bagels in their stilettos. It really was a majestic scene, and much more fun.

Photographer Katsu Naito luckily documented the scene in West Side Rendezvous, published in an edition of 500 by London publisher Wild Life Press and available at Printed Matter.

Here is a selection of images of a neighborhood when it had personality.