Hardcover with dust jacket.

This is a book of photographs depicting the way of life photographer Merry Alpern discovered and then documented in the winter of 1993-4. From an open window of an apartment in Wall Street, the two tiny windows of an after-hours sex club opposite could be seen. A different sort of financial exchange was witnessed, between men in expensive suits and women in black lace for a variety of sex acts and drugs. Rather than being explicit, the photographs are heavily chopped by the window frames. All that has been captured are dislocated shots of a handbag being opened, dollars being stashed, a breast, a condomed penis, a wedding-ring - images that only suggest the existence of this sleazy world, rather than graphically recording it. The result is intellectually provocative, moving, revolting, funny and sad. The book includes an essay by Richard B. Woodward.