©2019 Uwe von Loh
MARKUS LEHR (*1959) is a visual artist, photographer and curator based in Berlin, Germany.
He graduated in Communication from the University of Arts in Berlin and has been actively involved in photography and digital media ever since. Several notable international publications have featured his pictures. His work was published in three books in 2013, 2017 and 2018. The artist showcased his images at solo and group exhibitions in Germany, France, Italy, Holland and the UK. He lives and works in Berlin.
His work centers on urban and postindustrial landscapes, capturing traces of social and economic change. With the integration of AI, Markus Lehr expands his practice by a dimension that points beyond the momentariness of photography. His recent hybrid images merge the real and the imaginary, dissolving boundaries of space, time, and narrative. By combining human perception with algorithmic imagination, Markus Lehr explores the tension between reality and fiction—questioning how technology reshapes what and how we see.
Among the artists who influenced him the most were Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Daidō Moriyama, Todd Hido, William Eggleston, and Edward Burtynsky,
but he was also deeply impressed by the films of Michelangelo Antonioni such as “Il deserto rosso” and “Blow up”.
Artist statement
“Despite the fact that there are rarely any people visible in my images, I think they are all about us.
There was a time in my life when I worked in a theatre. And that moment when everybody had left, and the stage was quiet and empty, was always the most inspiring one for me. The show was over, and the light was still directed on the stage, but nobody was watching it anymore.
What I am looking for in my work is just like that.”
Selected news & exhibitions
Another world is possible
Group Exhibition, Berlin Steglitz, Friday, Dec 5, 2025, 7 pm.
The exhibition brings together four artists from Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo who engage with the fundamental elements of visual design: color, texture, composition, and light. More information.
Unmade Beds and Butterflies
Book Launch on November 28, 2025 at the Museum of Unheard-of Things, Berlin.
The Seen, The Unseen & The Uncanny
Group Exhibition, Berlin Gendarmenmarkt, March 2025 – February 2026: More information.
Group exhibition with Hiroshi Sugimoto and 5 other international Artists: Theaters of absence, Blacklight gallery, Padua, Italy, May 31, 2024
North East South West – BEYOND THE WALL, Venice, Italy, October 07 – 22, 2023
Solo exhibition “Songs of ghosts”, Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, Berlin, September 02 – 21, 2023
ROME INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Medina Art Gallery, December 13 – 30, 2022
CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2022, Palazzo Bembo Oct 20 – November 10, 2022
VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Sept. 08 – 30, 2022
DE B-SIDE: “A visual quest for the backside of human presence”,
Visserhallen, Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, May 22 – July 17, 2022
Group exhibition with Edward Burtynsky and 20 other international Artists: “Another look at Man-Altered Landscape”,
Gallery Catherine et André Hug / PhotoSaintGermain, Paris, November 2021: More information
“Fokus Berlin”, Kühlhaus, Berlin, October 2020
Exhibition with Grant Simon Rogers: Mise en scène, Atelier André Kirchner, Berlin, March – April 2020
Exhibition with Toru Ukai: Tokyo Meets Berlin – A Tale of Two Cities, LA CAMERA CHIARA, Berlin, August 2019
Solo exhibition “Occasionally surprising”, Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, Berlin, March 2019
“Preparing for Darkness“, curated by Marianne Kapfer, Kühlhaus Berlin, May 2018
Solo exhibition: “China – Everything happens at the same time”, LA CAMERA CHIARA, Berlin, April 2018
Solo exhibition, McKinsey & Company, Inc., Munich, January 2016
Berlin photography, Gallery Carpentier, Berlin, January 2015
BEWAREXHIBIT, Paris, Group exhibition, October 2013
Publikumspreis of the German Architects federation, November 2012
Selected publications
2025: Unmade Beds and Butterflies
2021: Natures: Landscapes of Human Intent by Immaterial Books
2020: The B-sides of architecture: 96 pictures by 32 photographers from 12 different countries.
2018: China – Everything happens at the same time
2018: Artist feature in the Chinese Lifestyle Magazine VISION, Beijing
2017: Camera Infinita releases “Insomnia – Night Takes Berlin”
2013: Fairytales and Nightingales