Born in 1966 in Cloppenburg, is a German photographer associated with the Düsseldorf School of Photography. His work is characterized by a restrained, contemplative documentary approach focused on absence, transition, and the traces of recent history.

After studying communication design at the University of Essen from 1986 to 1993, Laurenz Berges worked as a photographic assistant to Evelyn Hofer in New York City in 1988 and 1989. From 1992 he studied photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and became a master student of Bernd Becher in 1996. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Berges’s photographic practice centers on themes of impermanence and disappearance. In the early 1990s, he photographed the interiors of former East German military barracks abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His photobook Etzweiler documents a village erased by open-cast lignite mining, while other long-term projects focus on post-industrial landscapes and neglected urban areas, particularly in Duisburg. Through images of empty rooms, vacated houses, and overgrown gardens, Berges develops a quiet, poetic visual language that remains firmly rooted in documentary tradition.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurenz_Berges