Striking Photographs Of People Who Are Allergic To Everything

Thilde JensenJensen set out to document the people who suffer from this rare condition.

In 2003, photographer Thilde Jensen was living in the hectic urban environment of New York City when she began to suffer from chronic sinus and ear infections that only kept getting worse.

One day while waiting in traffic, she noticed a car ahead of her spewing out exhaust and simultaneously felt her throat become sore and a fever come on. It was then she knew that the pollution and chemicals around her were making her ill.

"The urban life I so carelessly had enjoyed now turned into a toxic war-zone," she tells Business Insider.

Soon after, she was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, or Environmental Illness (EI), a condition where patients suffer chronic symptoms when in the presence of low-grade chemical exposure. Jensen joined a small group of people whose lives had become completely debilitated by the toxins present in everyday life.

As a photographer, Jensen's immediate response to her situation was to document it with her camera. She met other MCS suffers and set out to tell their stories. Her acclaimed book of this work, titled "The Canaries," was released this year. 

Jensen shared a selection of images and her story with us.