Walter Schels and Beate Lakotta spent over a year talking to and photographing terminally ill patients. These experiences had a profound effect on them and their attitudes to death and its discourse. Join Walter, Beate and Sheila Payne of Lancaster University for an intimate exploration of this remarkable project.

Speakers
> Beate Lakotta, science editor, ‘Der Spiegel’ news magazine
> Walter Schels, photographer

Facilitator
> Shelia Payne, Professor of Hospice Studies, Lancaster University

In support of the ‘Life Before Death’ exhibition.

Walter Schels
I was born in Landshut, Bavaria, in 1936. In the early 1950s I earned my living as a window dresser in Barcelona, Toronto and Geneva. In 1966 I went to New York to become a photographer; I returned to Germany in 1970 and worked in advertising and for various magazines. In 1975 I had a milestone experience, when I was asked to document births for a parenting magazine. That’s when I saw the face of a newborn child for the first time. But it wasn’t a faceless being – it had an aged, knowing face with a past. Since that time, I have developed an increasing fascination with faces and portraiture. My main interest became observing the human existence in extreme conditions.

Beate Lakotta
I was born in 1965, and studied German literature and political science in Heidelberg. Since 1999 I have been a journalist for the science section of ‘Der Spiegel’ magazine, contributing feature articles covering diverse aspects of medicine and psychology. I’m especially interested in exploring the conditions of the beginning and end of life in times of high-tech medicine and modern intensive care.

Registration required:

Yes

Free:

Yes