Few experiences are likely to affect us as profoundly as an encounter with death. Yet most deaths occur almost covertly, at one remove from our everyday lives. Deaths and dying are arguably our last taboos – tho topics our society finds most difficult. We certainly fear them more than our ancestors did. Opportunities to learn more about them are rare indeed.

The photographer Walter Schels and the journalist Beate Lakotta asked twenty-five terminally ill people to be allowed to accompany them in their final days and weeks. Most of the  portrayed spent their final time in a hospice. Those who move in here know they'll not be going back home, know that they need to put their affairs in order, that for them life will be soon over. And yet hardly anyone here is without hope: for a few more days, for a peaceful death or that death may not be the end of everything.

All of them agreed to be portrayed shortly before and after death.The exhibition reports on the experiences, fears and hopes of the dying and gives them one more opportunity to be heard. 

Our thanks go to everyone who was involved in this project, but especially to those portrayed and their relatives.