A general perturbative approach to solving photorefractive material equations for a two-wave mixing geometry is developed. The method allows the study of both stationary and transient states of the space-charge field. As an example, solutions were given for GaAs–AlGaAs photorefractive multiple quantum well structures working in the Franz–Keldysh geometry. Approximate explicit expressions describing the recording and erasure dynamics of photorefractive gratings have been derived. The results are compared with numerical solutions of a complete set of material equations.