Presence Beyond Time: A Sacred Axis of Seeing
At the threshold of Angkor Wat, a god waits without speaking. Eight arms extend from a body cloaked in jasmine and sequined saffron. Known as Ta Reach—the King of the Ancestors—he stands not as relic, but as presence. To encounter Him is to feel a hush enter the chest. To photograph Him is to listen more than to frame.
Lucas Varro arrived before dawn. The corridor smelled of sandalwood and time. Pilgrims moved like breath. When the hush within the gopura and the hush within the artist aligned, the shutter opened for a single long exposure—medium format black-and-white film receiving what words cannot hold. In the studio, light and shadow were shaped through classical chiaroscuro and hours of hand-toning until presence returned to the print.
Here, Vishnu does not dominate—He dwells. His smile, grave yet human, holds both creation and dissolution in balance. This is Cambodia’s soul: ancient, wounded, luminous. Within the Spirit of Angkor series, Presence Beyond Time stands as a sacred axis—an image through which all others quietly orbit.
The edition is limited to 25, with 2 Artist’s Proofs reserved. Each print is signed, numbered, hand-toned, and printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper—chosen for its softness, sustainability, and reverent tactility. Included are a Certificate of Authenticity and Collector’s Print Folio Statement.
To live with this work is to welcome a presence—not loud, but unyielding. A gaze that remains.
Also in Library
Garuda and the Serpent · Flight and Surrender
Between Garuda’s wings and the Nāga’s coils, Angkor breathes its oldest truth: flight and surrender are one motion. In the carvings where sky and water entwine, the pilgrim learns that freedom depends upon gravity, and that stillness itself is a kind of flight.
The Measure of Silence: A Pilgrim’s Reflection on Kingship at Angkor
Through the ruins of Angkor, a curatorial pilgrim traces the vanished geometry of divine rule. In the silence of the stones, kingship reveals itself as both devotion and decay—an empire of alignment turned elegy, where even ruin retains the measure of sacred order.
The Pilgrim’s Guide to Cambodia’s Beginnings
In the caves of Laang Spean, in the myth of a dragon princess, in the echoes of Funan and Chenla — Cambodia’s beginnings endure. This essay walks with ancestors through soil, stone, and water, tracing how the first Cambodians shaped rice, ritual, and memory into a living continuity that still breathes today.
