WALTER SCHELS
BEATE LAKOTTA
NOCH MAL LEBEN
09.06.–31.07.2009
Westlicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie presents touching photographs from Walter Scheels and texts from Beate Lakotta in an exhibition about dying: Noch mal leben. Eine Ausstellung über das Sterben will be on from June 9th till July 31st.
There is almost nothing that moves us more that the encounter with death. But nowadays there is almost nothing so hidden. Removed from the family and everyday life, death and dying are experiences that have become tabooed in our society. Photographer Walter Schels and journalist Beate Lakotta asked incurably ill people if they could accompany them during their last weeks and days. What came out of this encounter are sensitive portraits of people who are very close to death. The large format, black and white prints were made just before and just after their deaths. The exhibition tells of the experiences, fears and hopes of those portrayed and allows them to have one final say.
Most of the twenty-six people portrayed spent their last days in a hospice. Hospices are places where dying people live. They offer the terminally ill the possibility of spending the remainder of their lives as pain-free and conscious as possible. Anyone who move in here knows they will not be returning home. They know they must say goodbye and that they have very little time left to put their personal affairs in order. There is only a short time left in order to take stock, to make peace with themselves and others, to turn their attention to death and with the question of the hereafter. Nevertheless almost none here is without hope: of one day more, of a good death or that death is perhaps not the end of everything.
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