�It was absolutely forbidden to stop. On the old Bundesstrasse B5 from Berlin to Hamburg, on the stretches of highway between the two zones� Accompanying the passenger through the Interzone were architecturally monotonous two, and three story buildings, behind high walls or wooden walls painted with inexpensive East Bloc paint. These constructions, mostly utility buildings stemming from the Nazi years, served as housing during the era of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for its poor occupiers, members of the once glorious Soviet army.�1

German artist Laurenz Berges (b. 1966), waited for daylight to filter through the rooms of the former Soviet army buildings. A master student of Bernd Becher, at the Academy of Art in D�sseldorf, and assistant to photographer Evelyn Hofer, New York, Berges understands light as visible volume. His judicious use of natural light illuminates impoverished post-Cold War dwellings, revealing interiors that echo with angst and decay.

Upon returning to Germany from New York, Berges spent 5 years photographing the series of chromogenic prints known only by his name and recorded dates. A planned publication, Laurenz Berges � Fotografien 1991-1995, and exhibitions at the Oldenburger Kunstverein and Kunstverein Recklinghausen, led to broad attention. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, recently purchased Perleberg, 1992 which was exhibited in Walker Evans & Company, the closing photography exhibition at MoMA. A British exhibition accompanied by the publication, Reconstructing Space, Architecture in Recent German Photography has Berges well positioned in the tradition of Hilla and Bernd Becher and former Master Students Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer, and Thomas Ruff.

1 Ulrich Bischoff, Rooms Made out of Light and History, Laurenz Berges, Fotografein, 1991-1995