Handbags.

I have often wondered what is in the handbags of the sex workers who line some of the main drags in Cape Town, and other major cities of the world for that matter.

In order to answer the question I hired a transporter van and built a small studio in the back thereof. My assistant Kyle and I purchased some chocolate bars and sodas and drove to where the workers ply their trade.

The title of the work may seem hackneyed, but some of the prostitutes certainly are not.

It seemed to us that they welcomed the opportunity to engage in something unusual. Here were two trim, satisfied young men inviting them to reveal the contents of their handbags for a small amount of cash. This is as opposed to unsatisfied rotund gentlemen in fat pick-ups asking them for far, far more.

It's likely that political correct commentators will question the way in which the bags are shown. If one looks carefully at the hands and the tiny parts of the bag-owners which enter the frame a lot can be read in their subtly scarred forearms and hands. The revealing action also is quite tender I think.

The photography which has appealed to me the most over the years is that which transgresses what has been prohibited before in an intelligent and conscious way.