Uneins

As if the television had spewed out the content of all of its 99 channels in one go, a jumble of old newspapers, advertising leaflets, clothes, electrical appliances and plastic bags covers the room. Opposite the TV on the bed sits an elderly man with thinning grey hair; the remote control lies beside him on a small table. His eyes are closed and the TV is turned off. The calm after the storm?

For her photo series “Uneins” [At Odds, 2001], the photographer Sibylle Fendt created portraits of five people whose things have become too much for them, who can no longer organize their environments—people known as pathological hoarders.