The Meatpacking District is experiencing an evolution from industrial to cutting-edge trendy.  Originally known as Gansevoort Market, the area just south of West 14th Street and from Hudson Street to the Hudson River was once home to 250 slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants.

Today, this formerly gritty district is arguably the hottest new thing in urban chic. By day, 35 wholesale meat companies still operate in the neighborhood, and this blue-collar presence exists side-by-side with tony galleries, pricey furniture showrooms, high-end fashion designersand hair stylists, and the swanky Hotel Gansevoort, which opened in April of 2004.

This is the first of our New York neighbourhood camera trips, important as this area is changing fast and soon all that will be left of its roots are photographs like these.