An accidental tradition has developed in my family and now we have four generations of mothers’ purses and their contents on display. The contents are partly happenstance and partly curated by the following generation.

The The Things We Carry is a 15-foot panoramic photograph depicting the images of the contents of these purses at actual size. Some of the objects are then placed on top of the corresponding image beneath. By having some objects present and some only represented photographically, the work juxtaposes presence and absence, while raising questions about essence and aura versus representation. Through these contents we can observe the changing of times and view glimpses of these women lives—their beliefs, their hearts, and their fears.