I’ve shared these photos before. Not once. But five or six times (on facebook, the old tumblr, twitter, etc). I think they’re near perfect and the reason photography was invented– not to instagram your food, people.

They present a portrait of a dying person before and then directly after they die. There is a beauty to it, dead people looking dead, as they should (not made up in wigs and makeup).

Maria Hai-Anh Tuyet Cao, age 52

Barbara Gröne, age 51

Jens Pallas, age 62

Edelgard Clavey, age 67

Wolfgang Kotzahn, age 57

Here is a charming video of the German artists Walter Schels–with his kooky Andy Warhol haircut– and Beate Lakotta talking about the project.

See all the portraits here.