Stillness in the Shape of Shelter
“He shelters not from weather, but from forgetting.”
In the quiet interior of East Mebon Temple, a Buddha sits beneath the hood of a coiled naga. The figure is stained, timeworn, imperfect—and radiantly intact. His gesture is Dhyana Mudra: one hand for enlightenment, the other for illusion. The thumbs touch in silent union.
Above him, the serpent Muchilinda curls into protection. Not fierce. Not dramatic. The shelter is quiet. The stillness complete.
Lucas Varro encountered this moment as a listener, not a seeker. There had been rain the night before. The air was dense with scent. The stone beneath his feet was slick, and the silence had weight. The Buddha did not call to be seen. He asked only to be received.
The artist worked with medium-format black-and-white film. The exposure was long—slow enough to let the hush reveal itself. In the darkroom, chiaroscuro shaping gave voice to the dim interior light. Each print is hand-toned with devotion, guided not by formula but by breath.
The Stillness That Shelters Light is one of the inward keystones of the Spirit of Angkor series. It does not explain the sacred. It listens for it. It does not portray stillness. It shelters it.
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This museum-grade pigment print is hand-toned on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper—a material chosen for its organic warmth and spiritual tactility. The edition is strictly limited to 25 prints + 2 Artist’s Proofs, each signed and numbered by the artist on the border recto.
To live with this work is to live with a kind of silence that stays.
Also in Library
The Crocodile and the Moon Eel: A Tide-Bargain
A crocodile waits in hush where river bends to moonlight. From the silt, a pearl-lit eel rises, whispering a bargain of scale and tide. What is given is never returned whole: hunger meets silence, storm keeps watch, and the river writes its law in breath.
Field Note: Blue Hour at Angkor
The blue hour settles over Angkor like a hush in stone. Naga coils dissolve into shadow, carvings soften into silence, and hunger without teeth endures. A sketch becomes listening. Each fracture is a hymn, each hollow a river. A field note on patience, memory, and the stillness that lingers.
At the River’s Bend
Dusk leans against the bank and the water forgets its hurry. A heron holds one bead of light. In the reeds, someone counts—commas between breaths. The river practises memory; cicadas re-thread a broken necklace. Perhaps art is only this: placing the pause so the note can be heard.
$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.
