Dawn Bite, Silent Vow
Mist thickens like breath not yet exhaled. The Western Gallery lies in shadow, stone still cold with night. I walk slowly, each footfall attuned to uneven centuries. My fingertips graze bas-relief—edges worn smooth by pilgrims and storm. Then I see them.
A vanara, muscles coiled, jaw clenched. A rakshasa, body arched in the moment of pain. Yet there is no rage here—only intention. No chaos—only choreography. It is not hatred that drives the bite. It is something older, purer.
I kneel. My breath slows. The shutter opens.
Stone before sunrise—
a single vow pierces flesh,
shadow drinks the light.
The silence deepens. I walk on, but something walks with me—something left behind in silver grain, and something carried forward beneath the ribs. I will meet it again in the darkroom. I will coax it from shadow, tend it with toner like fire.
The print that emerges will not speak of war. It will speak of devotion unbound—Bhakti Mukta—a vow that bites through illusion and opens into stillness.
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The Story on the Wall
At Angkor Wat, more than fifty metres of carved sandstone hold the Battle of Lanka. Rama is present, but he must be found. This Prologue to The Story That Became Cambodia begins with the monumental certainty of the wall—and asks what the finished image cannot reveal about the Ramayana’s earlier journey into Khmer history.
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A spare lyric poem from The Vow on breath, speech, gratitude, and the received body through which every answer must be formed and released.
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Devotion, Unbound
Angkor Wat Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2020
Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print
Edition
Strictly limited to 7 prints + 2 Artist’s Proofs
Edition Number
This listing is for the first numbered print from the Large Collector Edition: 1/7
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
28 x 28 inches (71.1 x 71.1 cm)
Before the birds herald day, a dusky hush clings to Angkor Wat’s Western Gallery. Within that hush, two figures ignite—a vanara’s jaws closing upon a rakshasa’s thigh, their limbs blazing across the centuries in unwavering purpose. The wall itself seems to inhale, holding the precise moment when loyalty surpasses fear.
This stillness hums with unseen currents: sandalwood breeze, latent thunder, the breath of hundreds of stone warriors who bear silent witness. Yet all sound recedes into the gravity of this single bite, chiselled conviction etched into sandstone and darkness alike.
Lucas Varro knelt for this encounter as one might kneel at a shrine: heart quiet, shutter poised, body stilled to receive what the wall would disclose. Medium-format black-and-white film gathered the lingering night; long exposure let devotion root itself in silver. Later, chiaroscuro shaping and hand-toning coaxed hidden embers to the surface, until violence revealed its secret tenderness.
Strictly limited to twenty-five prints with two Artist’s Proofs, each sheet rests on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper whose warm fibers cradle the image like well-worn prayer beads. Signed, numbered, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, every impression bears the trace of the artist’s steady hand.
Invite this fierce serenity into the room where your quietest questions wait.
To walk further into the silence behind the stone, click here to enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Battle of Lanka I, Study I, Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia. 2020,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.