When walking in a busy crowd, it is rare for one to see two people with the same purse, and even if the purse is the same make on the outside, the things inside will never be the same. What a person chooses when buying a purse – the color, the number of pockets, the length of the strap, the texture – is personal, something chosen for functionality or fashion, that a person feels fits with them. The things a person chooses to put in their purse – chapstick, a wallet, notepads – and forgets to take out of their purse – chewed gum, receipts – is also personal. 

Photographing these things in a vulnerable state, in full view, public, spilled from their owner’s grasp, gives rise to a question of their meaning. Why does an Italian have a Mexican peso in their bag? What was the ticket stub for, where did the owner go? Why are they carrying around sunglasses at night? It presents the things inside the purse and the purse itself as a vehicle into someone’s mind.