- We are tomorrow's dead - Dagbladet.no

German couple Beate Lakotta (48) and Walter Scheler (77) feared death.

This led to a unique photo project that opens the Tech Museum Tuesday 3 March.

sought dying

- We visited the hospice in Hamburg and Berlin and came into contact with 35 people dying, and were allowed to take pictures of them while they are alive and after death had occurred.

It says Beate Lakotta and Walter Scheler.

Dagbladet journalist and photographer Lakotta Scheler at the Museum of the show “Life of death” is made clear. They were familiar with the dying and in words and pictures told their story.

Feared Death

Walter Scheler was nine years old when World War II ended, and saw death and brutality up close. Although there is a big age difference between the two, they were both scared to death. The idea was to photo / journalism project in 2004 – a show that has gone around the world since.

– I’m still afraid to die, but I no longer have nightmares at night, says Scheler.

exhibition at the Museum of Science shows close-ups of 25 people, pictures of them while they are alive and after their death. They are not scary or shocking, but filled with a beautiful calmness and dignity. They all knew they would soon die.

– We cried a lot

- We are tomorrow’s dead. The death is not easy, but it has been alienated in the modern world. We do not want to romanticize death, it can be painful and difficult – both for the dying and their families.

A was the hardest pictures to take, were of little Elmira – who died of a brain tumor only eighteen years old.

– She died at home. Mora bar on her, weeping. We also cried a lot in the time we met the dead and their families, says Lakotta and Scheler.

The real death

- I have long wanted this exhibition to Norway, and finally – in collaboration with the Technical Museum, it is here, says the head of the Cancer Society, Anne Lise Ryel.

She is happy that the exhibition is displayed in the well-visited museum.

During the six months of the Expo will be held thematic meetings and put additional focus on death.

– The exhibition is strong, dignified, peaceful and quiet. The pictures show the real death. Many of us have never seen dead people, continue from the TV – and then often in situations that are quite special and unusual.

More transparency

Death is the last 50-100 years been alienated so many. Before death was much more a part of people’s lives and often the dead man home – either as a child, adult or old.

– Death has become something unnatural. We want more openness about death as a natural part of life. We die of old homes and hospitals and funeral homes will take care of everything, says Ryel.

– I find that people are not afraid of death, but of losing his life. It is the life we ??do not we let go of.

still taboo

Project manager and curator at the Museum of Science / National Museum of Medicine, Ellen Lange, says that 1 meter x 1 meter photographs should be supplemented with dokumetarfilmer with death as a theme.

– Death and showing dead people are still associated taboo, says Ellen Lange.

Tech Museum has 200,000 visitors a year. Since 2014 the museum’s 100 year anniversary, it is probably even more visitors this year.

– We expect at least that 100000 looks “Life with death.”