…»Laurenz Berges is a chro­nic­ler of absence. In his series of emp­ty bar­racks of Soviet tro­ops in the for­mer GDR, or in his pic­tures of housing which has had to be aban­do­ned by its resi­dents becau­se brown coal mining in wes­tern Germany has rea­ched the sett­le­ments, the pho­to­grapher has con­cen­tra­ted on the por­tra­y­al of spaces whe­re the­re are no peo­p­le. These images report in a redu­ced and cool way on poli­ti­cal and eco­no­mic forces which lead to major con­se­quen­ces for the peo­p­le affec­ted. Berges is a see­ker of traces who com­ple­te­ly reli­es upon the details in his pho­to­graphs achie­ving gre­at effect when we view them. In his new work, too, he devo­tes hims­elf with gre­at care to the signi­fi­can­ce of what is appar­ent­ly trivial.

His appar­ent­ly mini­ma­list pho­to­graphs refer to the ear­lier use of spaces depic­ted only in details. Their resi­dents have put them to ano­ther use.

Berges shows us this chan­ge in arid pho­to­graphs which, becau­se they are great­ly redu­ced, tell their sto­ry only indi­rect­ly and almost grud­gin­gly. This sto­ry tells of the exis­ten­ti­al mea­ning of cer­tain spaces for our iden­ti­ty, but also of their tran­si­ence and their loss. We can under­stand Berges‹ pho­to­graphs as a refu­sal of the expec­ta­ti­ons of quick legi­bi­li­ty that are con­ti­nu­al­ly made of pho­to­gra­phy. The with­dra­wal of infor­ma­ti­on leads to con­cen­tra­ti­on on the image-lan­guage of his pho­to­graphs. With his insis­tence on deve­lo­ping fur­ther the for­mal lan­guage of pho­to­gra­phy, Berges frees hims­elf from purely docu­men­ta­ry pre­ten­si­ons. His vacant images throw us back on our­sel­ves. We first have to regain trust to belie­ve them.«

in: Click Double Click – the docu­men­ta­ry fac­tor, Cologne 2006, p 42–43