Haunting Photos Of People Just Before They Died

Published May 27, 2015
Updated June 22, 2020

In the back of our minds, we know we're going to die. But what does it look like just before it happens? These death photos reveal how mundane the end can look.

Somewhere in the back of our minds, we all know we’re going to die. Even further back in our minds, we have a vague understanding that death can happen to us at any moment, though the millions of moments that have already passed without incident may give us false optimism.

Surely, we think, we’ll have at least a few seconds of warning before the end comes. Maybe even days, weeks, or months? It can’t be the case that I woke up this morning for the last time, and that the end for me is scheduled for this afternoon, can it?

This is a natural way to think about the issue and it’s a fair bet that the people in these pictures probably thought the same thing, right up until the unimaginable happened. In an increasingly photographed world, it is inevitable that some people’s last normal moments will be captured, giving a ghostly tribute to how normal everything can be… right up until the end:

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Be sure to like All That Is Interesting on Facebook and to check out our other galleries on life inside North Korea and the last photos of 15 icons before they died. Then, read up on the five worst ways to die.

author
Richard Stockton
author
Richard Stockton is a freelance science and technology writer from Sacramento, California.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
Based in Brooklyn, New York, John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of expertise include modern American history and the ancient Near East. In an editing career spanning 17 years, he previously served as managing editor of Elmore Magazine in New York City for seven years.
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Stockton, Richard. "Haunting Photos Of People Just Before They Died." AllThatsInteresting.com, May 27, 2015, https://allthatsinteresting.com/death-photos. Accessed August 11, 2025.