What’s more mysterious than women themselves? For Russian photographer Sergei Stroitelev, it’s the contents of their bags. “As a kid, I was convinced that my mom and her friends had to carry around all sorts of magical items, plus a couple of bricks. I thought that was the law – in case they needed to save the world or something,” he tells Vice.

As a social experiment (and fuelled by pure curiosity),  Stroitelev convinced random women around St. Petersburg to show him the contents of their bags, which he arranged on a black cloth and photographed. Paired with the bag owners’ names, ages and professions, the hodgepodge of random items allow us to imagine the lives and personalities of these women. See the full fascinating series on Vice.

Source: Vice