Laurenz Berges (born 1966 in Cloppenburg) belongs to the younger generation who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Prior to this, however, Berges studied at the Folkwang School in Essen and, in 1989, spent time as an assistant to Evelyn Hofer in New York City, an experience that had a profound influence on him both visually and in terms of content.

In his projects, Berges documents abandoned places and explores his own homeland. In doing so, he uses only natural light and consistently refrains from staging his scenes. His images are silent testimonies to social and political upheavals, such as the structural change in North Rhine-Westphalia or the abandoned barracks of the Russian army in the former GDR, photographed immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Home plays a major role for him. People are almost never seen in Laurenz Berges’ photographs, yet he uncovers the traces they left behind over the years before they disappeared.

The filmmaker and curator Ralph Goertz accompanied Laurenz Berges with his camera for over two years in his studio, whilst he was setting up his exhibition at the MGKSiegen, and whilst taking photographs in his home town of Cloppenburg, to which he dedicated his first artistic work in 1989/90.

LAURENZ BERGES. Living Spaces
a film by Ralph Goertz
documentary: 36minutes, HD
language: German (with English subtitles)
All works © Laurenz Berges / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
used by permission of the artist
production: IKS - Institut für Kunstdocumentation
© IKS-Medienarchiv

Public screening, broadcasting, editing, copy, publishing or any other use with a written permission only.

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