Martin Gressmann was born in Hamburg in 1953. Growing up in Bruxelles, he went on to study at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in Munich form 1976 to 1980. He subsequently worked as assistant DoP on films like Rudolf Thome's "Berlin Chamissoplatz" (1980) and "System ohne Schatten" (1983), and Helke Sander's "Der Beginn aller Schrecken ist Liebe" (1984).

Over the years, he has been DoP on stylistically highly diverse film and television productions. He photographed Thome's modern fairy tale "7 Frauen", Lars Becker's gangster movie "Schattenboxer" (1992) and Ayse Polat's award-winning road movie "Auslandstournee" ("Tour Abroad", 1999). He also was DoP on Kai Wessel's TV movie "Mein Bruder, der Idiot" (1999), and Wessel's "Feuer in der Nacht" (2004), which was broadcasted live. His work on Raymond Ley's documentary drama "Die Nacht der großen Flut" (2005, TV) won Gressmann the Deutsche Kamerapreis in 2006.

In addition to Rudolf Thome and Kai Wessel, Gressmann also frequently worked with director Dominik Graf, for whom he framed "Reise nach Weimar" (1995), "Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge" (1996) and "Der Weg, den wir nicht zusammen gehen", Graf's contribution to the omnibus film "Deutschland 09" ("Germany '09", 2009).

Gressmann, who also was DoP on Andreas Gruber's acclaimed drama "Hannas schlafende Hunde" (2016), eventually produced, directed and shot the long-term documentary "Das Gelände". The film chronicles the change of the Berlin compound that once housed the headquarters of the Nazi secret police Gestapo and is now the site of the Topography of Terror Documentation Center. "Das Gelände" won the award for Best Cinematography at the 'Achtung Berlin' Festival and was named Best Documentary at the Preis der deutschen Filmkritik.

Together with Dominik Graf, Gressmann realized the documentary film "Philip Rosenthal - Der Unternehmer, der nicht an den Kapitalismus glaubte" (2017) as director and cinematographer. Based on the biography of the porcelain industrialist Philip Rosenthal (1916-2001), the film traces the changes in culture, consumption and working worlds from post-war Germany to the present day, while also describing the history of porcelain as a cultural history. The premiere took place in October 2017 at the Hof Film Festival.  

At the Duisburg Film Week in November 2021, Gressmann presented his documentary "Nicht verRecken," which he had been working on since 2015. It deals with the infamous death marches toward the end of World War II, in which concentration camp prisoners were driven by the Nazis over hundreds of kilometers toward the center of the Reich wherever the Allies advanced near the concentration camps. The film won the audience award in Duisburg. It was released in cinemas in October 2022.

In addition to his career as DoP, Gressmann has developed look and lighting concepts for TV studios and has been a long-standing lecturer at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.