Beneath the Hood, the World Falls Silent
“The stillness that shelters is not empty—
it is filled with all that no longer needs to speak.”
I stepped into the sanctuary before the heat rose, before the air began to move. The stone was cool beneath my feet, stained with time, streaked by creatures that sleep through daylight. The Buddha sat as though the centuries had passed elsewhere. His guardian hood—Muchilinda’s curled shelter—rested above him like a breath that had learned to hold itself.
There was no wind. No birdsong. Only the weight of stillness pressing in from every side.
I did not photograph him at once. I waited. I listened. And in that waiting, something settled in me. A kind of recognition. Not of form, but of what remains when everything has already fallen away.
The naga did not threaten. He did not defend. He simply watched. His stone body curled into gesture, not power. The Buddha below him was not asking to be seen—he had never left.
When I placed the tripod, it was not with intention but surrender. The film drank in the silence slowly. Later, in the studio, I shaped the print by hand, trying not to disturb what had already spoken.
coiled in temple hush
the Buddha does not return—
he has not left yet
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.
$250
East Mebon Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2020
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
8 x 8 inches (20.3 x 20.3 cm)
A Buddha rests in the sanctum of East Mebon Temple, still beneath the hooded coil of a naga. The stone is weathered. The light, faint. And yet, something here endures—not in form, but in stillness.
This is not the stillness of death, but of shelter. A breath held in stone. A silence that has chosen to remain.
Captured on medium-format black-and-white film, the exposure was slow, shaped more by reverence than composition. In the studio, chiaroscuro techniques guided the image’s depth and dimension. Each print was hand-toned to echo the warmth and inwardness felt in the moment of capture.
This signed and numbered work is printed as an archival pigment print on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, offered in a strictly limited edition of 25 with 2 Artist’s Proofs. The print holds not only image, but presence—a quiet companion for spaces of reflection.
To welcome this image is to allow stillness to shelter the light in you.
Click here to explore the Artist’s Journal and enter the silence.
