Obscured glimpses of the grubby goings-on in the toilets of an after-hours gentleman’s club in Manhattan, secretly photographed by Merry Alpern from the apartment building opposite. Given the context, feminine touches like searching a handbag or reapplying makeup feel even more amplified. 

A mix of transactional moments, all anonymous, capturing the functional interactions and fixes that punctuate the lives of sex workers and their punters, barely visible through the establishment’s tiny back windows.

Guilty scenes from a grimy and unglamorous yet visually arresting narrative set in the bleak intensity of mid-90s New York with all its sordid excesses.

Scalo, 1995. German edition. Hardcover. Good condition but large tear to dust jacket, reflected in price.

Lena Books is Le Kilt’s sister print space for research and reference. A shared resource for books and magazines straight from the shelves of our studio, launched to coincide with the opening of Le Kilt’s first concept store, Le Kilt Room.