Katsu Naito

West Side Rendezvous is a suite of 45 black-and-white photographs taken by the Japanese photographer Katsu Naito. Together, these images are a singular historical document of the queer and trans community — many of them sex workers — who worked in and around the Meatpacking District and the Chelsea Piers. Naito’s candid images portray a world at the very edge of New York, a liminal landscape of decay and ruin where sex workers, tricking in the era of HIV/AIDS and unreported hate crimes, put their lives on the line to make a living. Amidst it all, however, Naito captures the strength, playfulness, and pride of his subjects.

West Side Rendezvous is neither eulogy nor lamentation. It is a celebration, an ode, a witness to a community of those who came before. To celebrate this work, New York Life Gallery will exhibit images from West Side Rendezvous in November 2026, accompanied by a monograph of images.