ICantFindMolly

hey taylorswift I did a thing

Photographer Walter Sachels was terrified of death, so much so he refused to see his mother after she passed away. Upon entering his 70s, Schels finally decided to overcome his fear through a bold, bizarre project – photographing individuals before and directly after their death.

Schels and his partner Beat Lakotta began approaching potential individuals at hospices in Berlin and Hamburg. The pair were on constant alert, at times running out in the middle of the night to shoot before the undertaker would come.

Though emotionally draining, Schels recognized that the series became an important epitaph to people before they actually died. With family and friends unable to cope with the looming truth, terminally ill patients often feel completely isolated.

“It’s so good you’re doing this”, Schels quoted a dying man to The Guardian, “No one else is listening to me, no one wants to hear or know what it’s really like.”