An Apsara Before the First Light
“There is a silence more sacred than stillness: the one that listens back.”
The path through Banteay Srei was still wet from the night’s rain. Leaves shimmered in their stillness. Not a sound stirred—not even birdsong. The temple breathed with memory, and I followed its breath.
It was not light that first drew me to her, but presence. She stood at the heart of the sanctuary, her form emerging from the stone like something long remembered. One hand raised in quiet offering, the other by her side, she appeared neither goddess nor dancer, but something more elemental: an expression of balance, of grace held just before release.
The hamsas beneath her feet, those sacred swans, were carved as if waiting to carry her onward. And yet she remained—anchored and weightless. I could not tell if she leaned out from the wall or into it.
For a long time, I didn’t raise the camera. The light was still blue and directionless, pooled in crevices and folded robes. I simply stood, letting the silence gather around us.
Only when the faintest glint touched the curve of her brow did I begin to compose. The shutter fell like breath exhaled. In the stillness afterwards, I understood: the image had already formed—it was my listening that had arrived late.
vine-shadowed dawn hush
a single braid catching light
stone remembers breath
Also in Library
From Mountain to Monastery
Angkor Wat survived by learning to change its posture. Built as a summit for gods and kings, it became a place of dwelling for monks and pilgrims. As belief shifted from ascent to practice, stone yielded to routine—and the mountain learned how to remain inhabited.
Why Theravada Could Outlast Stone
Theravada endured by refusing monumentality. It shifted belief from stone to practice, from kings to villages, from permanence to repetition. What it preserved was not form but rhythm—robes, bowls, chants, and lives lived close together—allowing faith to travel when capitals fell and temples emptied.
The End of Sanskrit at Angkor
The final Sanskrit inscription at Angkor does not announce an ending. It simply speaks once more, with elegance and certainty, into a world that had begun to listen differently. Its silence afterward marks not collapse, but a quiet transfer of meaning—from stone and proclamation to practice, breath, and impermanence.
$260
Banteay Srei Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2022
Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print
Edition
Strictly limited to 25 prints + 2 Artist’s Proofs
Medium
Hand-toned black-and-white archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Bamboo — a museum-grade fine art paper chosen for its quiet tactility and reverent depth, echoing the spirit of the temples.
Signature & Numbering
Each print is individually signed and numbered by the artist on the border (recto)
Certificate of Authenticity
Accompanies every print
Image Size
10 x 6.7 inches (25.4 x 17 cm)
The first light touches carved sandstone like breath on water. At Banteay Srei, a solitary apsara steps forward from the temple wall, hips bowed, expression inward, surrounded by tendrils of lotus, scroll, and sky.
The courtyard is silent, rain-washed. A sweetness lingers in the air—moss, frangipani, and the faint trace of fire. She appears not as ornament, but as invocation: a gesture caught between time and eternity.
The moment stilled me. I stood with the camera lowered, waiting. When I finally exposed the film, it was not just light that entered—it was the presence of something older, something listening.
Photographed on medium-format black-and-white film, shaped with classical chiaroscuro techniques, and hand-toned with pigment and prayer, each print preserves this reverent hush. The edition is strictly limited to twenty-five, with two Artist’s Proofs. Each print is made on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper and signed on the border recto.
Own this quiet gesture of divine memory.
Click here to follow the echo deeper into the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Apsara II, Banteay Srei Temple, Angkor, Cambodia. 2022,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.
