Seated among the debris of his junkyard, a proprietor with his back to the camera bends over some task partially hidden behind a trashcan. Pots and pans, baskets, shoes, and clothing are among some of his possessions, which he would have collected in the cart in the left foreground and then sold as scrap goods. Because it would have taken Eugène Atget time to set up his tripod-mounted camera, this man was surely aware that he and his establishment were being photographed.