Walter Schels’ London Art Exhibit Shows Death Can Really Become Us

A new exhibit by photographer Walter Schels being shown in London has got people all in a tizzy and bloggers writing things like “all in a tizzy” because it deals with death. The exhibit features photographs terminally ill patients right before and after their deaths. How novel:

Death and dying are arguably our last taboos – the topics our society finds most difficult. We certainly fear them more than our ancestors did. Opportunities to learn more about them are rare indeed.

We think incest and bestiality or, you know. Self-induced miscarriages. Are probably greater taboos, but we think velvet Elvis painting are high art:

This exhibition features people whose lives are coming to an end. It explores the experiences, hopes and fears of the terminally ill. All of them agreed to be photographed shortly before and immediately after death.

The majority of the subjects portrayed spent their last days in hospices. All those who come to such places realise that their lives are drawing to a close. They know there is not much time left to settle their personal affairs. Yet hardly anyone here is devoid of hope: they hope for a few more days; they hope that a dignified death awaits them or that death will not be the end of everything.

We find this exhibit to be fairly inoffensive, especially since it incorporate the subjects’ own words in addition to images of them. Thus, they really are the subjects of a dialogue on death rather than objects of it. For example, 52-year-old Heiner Schmitz writes:

“No one asks me how I feel,” says Heiner Schmitz. “Because they’re all shit scared. I find it really upsetting the way they desperately avoid the subject, talking about all sorts of other things. Don’t they get it? I’m going to die! That’s all I think about, every second when I’m on my own.”

Hot damn, Heiner. What do you all make of this?

Life Before Death noch mal leben: portraits of the dying [Lens Culture]