Fisheye photograph in hard high sun, very close, straight lines bowing and the building tops leaning inward. A striking woman in her forties, silver-grey hair cropped short, strong brows, an adult, at a crowded city crossing with a patent holdall with chrome hardware held forward and filling the lower half of the frame, bowing into a dome, the figure behind it mid-frame and any bystanders small enough to read as texture. A metal chain belt · lacquered case · blunt black bob with hard specular streaks. Deep blue sky with crisp white cloud above, crisp small shadows. One thin dark line at the lash root and the rest left soft. Stained and blotted back to a trace. Deadpan absurdity — a mundane act performed with total ceremony, the subject unimpressed and entirely straight-faced.