Still Water, Listening Light
Rain-sweet air clings to the stone causeway; every leaf gleams with last night’s bloom. At the pond, mirrored darkness cups the sky’s first tremor. I lean close, sensing how stillness thickens once observation grows reverent. Long exposure is less decision than devotion: a willingness to let time speak its full sentence.
In studio solitude, chiaroscuro becomes continuation rather than correction. Shadows open like doors to deeper rooms; highlights breathe out of the paper’s warm bamboo grain. What was received at the pond is offered forward—light held in trust, then released.
Light steps barefoot
onto the broad back of water,
gathering centuries of hush
in a single cupped palm.Clouds drift like unvoiced psalms;
five towers ascend and descend
within the same held breath.Somewhere between wing-beat and prayer
the horizon loosens its name—
time slipping, shutter-slow,
into an older word for awe.Whatever remains of us here
is only stillness listening
after seeing—
a filament of reflection
trembling,
unbroken.
Also in My Journal
Stillness in the Shape of Shelter
A rain-streaked Buddha sits beneath the coiled naga Muchilinda, not to resist the world, but to hold stillness within it. This meditation reveals a print shaped by breath, not description.
The Shelter That Remains
Time gathers around the Buddha as breath, not burden. In this haibun, the artist offers a moment that does not explain itself—it simply remains, unmoving beneath the shelter of silence.
What Light Remembers
Light rests on the Buddha’s chest without revealing him. In this moment of reverent waiting, the image forms as presence—not picture. The serpent shelters, the stone remembers, and the poem listens.
$250
Angkor Wat 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)
Dawn enters on a breath so soft it barely stirs the palms. Over the lotus pond, the five towers of Angkor Wat rise not in stone, but in reflection—sky doubling back into water, memory leaning toward form.
The hush is complete. Wind holds its voice. Light kneels. In this early hour, Lucas Varro stood unseen, lens poised at the water’s edge. Reverence guided the exposure—a slow inhalation of the moment as the towers drifted into mirrored stillness.
Captured on 8×10 black-and-white film, the image was later shaped in the darkroom through classical chiaroscuro and hand-toned with care. Shadow and light were coaxed gently forward, honoring the atmosphere of that silent hour.
Each impression is a museum-grade archival pigment print on sustainable Hahnemühle Bamboo, limited to 25 prints with 2 Artist’s Proofs, signed and numbered on the border recto.
Let this reflection become the still water of your interior shrine.
To step softly into the hush of mirrored dawn, click here and enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Dawn Reflection, 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.
