Jorge da Cruz
Das Atelier
Polaroid 600 Series

Das Atelier is a photographic series captured entirely on a Polaroid 600 Original camera. Each image portrays an art studio or creative workspace, photographed at night in complete darkness. These environments—typically animated by the presence of the artist, buzzing with energy, movement, and light—are here rendered still, muted, and introspective. What is usually bathed in illumination becomes submerged in shadow; the tools and traces of creation emerge not in clarity, but in obscurity. The absence of the artist is central to the conceptual framework of the series. By excluding the figure behind the work, Das Atelier shifts attention to the silent evidence of their labor—the scattered materials, the unfinished gestures, the quiet residue of thought made physical. Each image suggests a kind of paused presence, a studio caught between use and abandonment, action and rest. Beyond the physical absence, the series also speaks to the emotional solitude of the creative process. Artistic creation is often romanticized as a vibrant, communal act—but it is equally, and perhaps more deeply, rooted in moments of intense isolation. Das Atelier embraces this solitude, revealing it not as a void, but as fertile ground. In the dark, distraction fades. The studio becomes a kind of sanctuary, where the mind can wander inward, and where ideas can gestate in silence. By photographing these spaces at night—stripped of their usual illumination—the series evokes a subtle inversion: places built to host light become enveloped in darkness. Yet this darkness is not oppressive; it becomes a medium of its own, softening edges, abstracting detail, and allowing mystery to surface. The resulting images are meditations on memory, latency, and the unseen rhythms of creation. Ultimately, Das Atelier explores themes of presence and absence, solitude, and the temporality of creative spaces. It presents the studio not only as a site of production, but as a living archive of artistic thought—charged with ghosts, waiting in the quiet for hands to return.

nOT