Since the mid-1990s, Markus Lanz has devoted himself not only to television but also, with growing intensity, to photography as a personal form of expression. While he appears in front of the camera as a host, behind the camera lies a quiet passion: with his Leica in tow, he documents distant landscapes, people in existential environments, and the moments where nature meets culture.

The photographs exhibited at the Leica Store Hamburg impressively showcase this photographic spectrum, alongside his current reportage on migration, which will be broadcast starting October 2025. In the documentary titled Markus Lanz – Flucht (Flight), he travels with author Anabel Münstermann from Syria through Senegal to southern Italy to explore the causes of migration, the routes, and the arrivals. The reportage is accompanied by striking black-and-white photographs—from war survivors in Syria, to economic fault lines in Senegal, to the challenges of arrival in southern Italy. This visual complement, captured in powerful black-and-white images, lends an additional dimension to the documentary work: the eye perceives the unseen, and the camera captures the in-between—hope, loss, movement.

Through this combination of media presence, photography, and authorship, Markus Lanz demonstrates that his photographic work is not a sideline, but an independent and serious path. He does not merely document but reflects. He does not see only landscapes or escape routes—he seeks encounters and poses questions: Why do people leave their homes? What traces does life leave along the way? What responsibility do we bear? From this attitude emerges a photographic biography that grows over the years—from icy expanses to the global human question.

Exhibition until May 30th 2026