Handbags at Dawn

I first read about Nathalie LeCroc's paintings in Gisele Scanlon's fabulous Goddess Guide - a treasure trove of a book filled chock a block with beautiful things, which in itself is sort of like going through a cool girlfriend's possesions

As for Miss LeCroc, she's a Parisian artist who paints the contents of women's handbags - she's gathering them all into an anthology of 1001 which she plans to publish in a book one day. In today's society where, whether we like it or not, we tend to be defined, and feel defined, by our possesions, they're really a perfect snapshot of an individual's life at that moment. The little odds and ends end up explaining more about a person that a portrait would - they're endlessly fascinating to me, a little window into a life. 

It would be a brilliant gift, if you could dump your friend's handbag out, photograph it and then get it all gathered back up again by the time they get back from the toilet.