Free Shipping On all Orders over $400 · Zero Tariffs for Most Countries

0

Your Cart is Empty

I had not planned to make an image that evening. The heat had faded, and the stone corridors of Ta Prohm exhaled the breath of centuries. The jungle was quiet—thick with the kind of gold that arrives only when the sun has begun to let go.

Then, between two columns, half in shadow, I saw it.

A circular carving—small, almost obscured—held the figure of a deer, prancing in perfect stillness. One hoof lifted, curved like a question. A ring of leaves enclosed its form. But it was not the design that held me. It was the way the light touched it. Not as surface, but as invocation.

The deer seemed to do something—though it hadn’t moved in a thousand years. Its raised hoof called the sun downward, as though dusk itself answered. There was grace here, yes. But also authority. The soft kind. The kind that does not demand reverence, but draws it in like breath.

I placed the tripod gently. Focused slowly. Let the long exposure receive what the moment offered: the hush, the gold, the gesture that gathered the light.

Later, in the studio, I shaped the negative with chiaroscuro until the image remembered what the stone had said. Each print is toned in gold by hand, not to decorate, but to keep alive the warmth I witnessed—when silence bent around a hoof, and light became prayer.

One hoof in still air
a breath of gold in the leaves—
stone, remembering.


Also in My Journal

The Wind That Carried Me to Zhenla – Introduction
A Scroll Carried by Wind

2 min read

Zhou Daguan came to Angkor to observe—but found a kingdom that defied explanation. This introductory scroll welcomes new readers into The Wind That Carried Me to Zhenla: a poetic resurrection of the 13th-century emissary’s journey, revoiced with reverence, wonder, and the hush of temple stone.

Read More
The Goddess of the Golden Tower · Khmer Myth Retold
The Goddess of the Golden Tower

5 min read

There is a tower the moon remembers—where a king once climbed in silence, and a goddess wove humility into gold. Though the spire has faded, her presence lingers in the hush between breath and stone, waiting for the next soul who dares to kneel before the unseen.

Read More
Phimeanakas and the Goddess of Sovereignty – Khmer Temple Myth
Phimeanakas and the Goddess of Sovereignty

2 min read

Within the Royal Enclosure of Angkor Thom stands Phimeanakas—the Celestial Palace. More than a monument, it is a myth made stone: where kings bowed to the goddess of the land, and sovereignty meant surrender. A contemplative meditation on sacred architecture, divine right, and the quiet power that still lives between the stones.

Read More