Beneath the Flame That Did Not Burn
Evening did not fall that day—it rose.
Along the western gate of Angkor Wat, the sky gathered itself into silence. The jungle slowed. One bird passed overhead without sound. Even the leaves turned inward. I remember standing in the path below her, this devata of flame and stillness. She is carved high into the wall, poised above the world but never apart from it. Her hand lifts a blossom that will never wither. Her eyes are quiet with knowing.
The heat was gone. The light was soft, yet sharpened. No longer sunlight—it had become memory. She did not catch it. She released it.
I did not move the tripod. I remember that. I had already composed. The film waited in its holder like breath behind the ribs. And then something changed in the stone. Not in the texture, not in the exposure. Something else. A shift beneath the carving—as though her stillness had agreed to rise.
The print I would later tone by hand in gold. Not to embellish, but to reveal what the light had given: a consecration that was never loud, never declarative. Just a flame held in stone. A silence shaped like offering.
Gold without shadow
blossoms in her lifted hand—
the wind does not move.
Also in Library
Those Who Keep the Way Open — On the Quiet Guardians of Angkor’s Thresholds
Quiet gestures shape the way into Angkor — a swept stone, a refilled bowl, a hand steadying a guardian lion. This essay reflects on the unseen custodians whose daily care keeps the thresholds open, revealing how sacredness endures not through stone alone, but through those who tend its meaning.
Multiplicity and Mercy — The Face Towers of Jayavarman VII
A new vision of kingship rises at the Bayon: serene faces turned to every horizon, shaping a world where authority is expressed as care. Moving through the terraces, one enters a field of steady, compassionate presence — a landscape where stone, light, and time teach through quiet attention.
Stone That Dreams
Bayon wakes like a mind emerging from shadow. Its many faces shift with light and breath, teaching that perception—and the self—is never singular. In walking this forest of towers, the pilgrim discovers a quiet multiplicity within, held together by a calm that feels both ancient and newly understood.
$260
Angkor Wat Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2021
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
9.25 x 7.3 inches (23.5 x 18.5 cm)
She waits high above the jungle path—still as a prayer unspoken.
At the western gate of Angkor Wat, a devata stands in stone yet lives in light. Carved centuries ago, she lifts a blossom in silent offering. The air around her is hushed. Her gaze does not hold the present—it holds the sun she once knew. She is not seen. She is felt. She is stillness in the flame of stone.
Lucas Varro composed the image in silence, just as the final warmth of day rose from the sandstone. Captured on large-format black-and-white film with a long exposure, the image was later shaped in the studio through classical chiaroscuro. The hand-toning in gold was the final act—restoring her radiance, gesture by gesture.
Printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, this hand-toned archival pigment print is offered in a strictly limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs.
She carries the fire
without moving.
Click here to follow her golden stillness into the Artist’s Journal.
