Storm-Lit Stillness
Rain awakens the courtyards before light uncurls from the horizon. A hush like warm iron rises from laterite, sweet-scented, mineral, oddly tender. I stand at the foot of Pre Rup’s ancient stair listening for language older than words. The camera waits closed, its bellows folded like lungs neither emptied nor full. I inhale the presence gathering here—at once thunderous and whisper-thin—until breath lengthens to match the hush.
A palm frond shivers. Far above, the five towers hover on the rim of cloud, half-erased, half-revealed, as if the gods had just stirred from meditation. I feel their attention settle—a weightless gravity drawing every sense inward. I do nothing. The moment asks only stillness.
Then, without intention, the shutter opens. Exposure becomes a form of reverence, not capture. Mist drifts across the lens. Rain stipples my back. Each second stretches, luminous and slow; the stair seems to unclasp itself from time.
Stone towers exhale rain—
morning climbs the silent stair,
gods wake in storm-light.
Afterwards, I close the camera with the care of extinguishing incense. The towers remain, listening. I leave quietly, a guest who has glimpsed, for a breath, the interior sky.
Also in My Journal
In the Shadow of the Sacred Wall - Morning at the Bayon
Mist drifts over ancient stone, where gods are carved into memory and silence carries the weight of forgotten prayers. Somewhere between shadow and gold light, something eternal waits—unmoving, and yet alive.
Beneath the Wings of Silence
Stone remembers what we forget. In a forest where Buddhas endure and hornbills rise, silence becomes a doorway—and every step, a prayer returned.
The Image That Waits with You
A devata carved in the third tier of Angkor Wat is not revealed by light, but by waiting. This curatorial meditation traces the devotional making of She Who Waits in Shadow—from hush to hand.
$310
Pre Rup Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2021
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)
Storm gathers over Pre Rup with the gravity of an ancient hymn, each rumble folding cool rain-air into the courtyard’s porous stone. In that charged half-light five towers rise like weathered psalms, their open doorways breathing mysteries older than speech.
The temple itself seems to inhale, quincunx of spires mapping Mount Meru against a sky of restless pewter. Water varnishes laterite; every stair glistens like first light made tactile. Stillness moves here, and movement is a kind of stillness.
I waited motionless in the rain, the lens open and listening, my breath slowed to the tempo of thunder. Across the glass the stair became a dark river of ascent, and for a suspended moment I felt looked-upon rather than looking—a brief recognition between presence and stone.
Developed in the studio, the negative received chiaroscuro’s quiet guidance, depth coaxed from shadow, hush teased from light. Hand-toning followed, layer on layer, until the print held the low hum of rain and the unseen pulse of gods.
Each archival pigment print is made on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, strictly limited to 25 with 2 Artist’s Proofs, and signed and numbered on the border recto—an offering of rarity, craft, and devotion.
Should this storm-lit stair find a home with you, may it become a silent threshold where breath, shadow, and spirit meet.
To step further into its making, click here to enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Pre Rup Temple, Study I, Angkor, Cambodia. 2021,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.
