The Laughter That Endures
The stone still held warmth, but the sun had gone.
I approached slowly. The path curved into shadow, then opened into a wall of radiant quiet. There they were—two devatas carved into the courtyard’s inner wall, poised not in warning, not in greeting, but in something softer. Something that felt like companionship.
One tilted her head slightly. The other seemed to hold her breath. A curl of lotus wound across each shoulder. Their hips turned, mirrored but not identical. And their smiles—those were not temple smiles. They were the kind shared in secret, in memory, in light.
They were not waiting for me. But I knew I had arrived.
I placed the camera as gently as I could, not because they might vanish—but because they never had.
a slant of gold
in the hollow of their earrings—
the day folding in on itself.
they are not guarding,
not dancing,
not even witnessing.
they are simply
there,
where light meets stone
and stays
just long enough
to be remembered.
Also in Library
Those Who Keep the Way Open — On the Quiet Guardians of Angkor’s Thresholds
Quiet gestures shape the way into Angkor — a swept stone, a refilled bowl, a hand steadying a guardian lion. This essay reflects on the unseen custodians whose daily care keeps the thresholds open, revealing how sacredness endures not through stone alone, but through those who tend its meaning.
Multiplicity and Mercy — The Face Towers of Jayavarman VII
A new vision of kingship rises at the Bayon: serene faces turned to every horizon, shaping a world where authority is expressed as care. Moving through the terraces, one enters a field of steady, compassionate presence — a landscape where stone, light, and time teach through quiet attention.
Stone That Dreams
Bayon wakes like a mind emerging from shadow. Its many faces shift with light and breath, teaching that perception—and the self—is never singular. In walking this forest of towers, the pilgrim discovers a quiet multiplicity within, held together by a calm that feels both ancient and newly understood.
$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
9.5 x 6.8 inches (24.1 x 17.3 cm)
There are devatas who guard, and devatas who guide—but these two, carved in gold-shadowed stone at the courtyard of Angkor Wat’s second floor, do something rarer still: they smile. And what passes between them is not silence, but sisterhood.
The sandstone wall from which they emerge was left unfinished, and perhaps because of this, their presence feels even more alive—two figures poised mid-laughter, lotus blossoms resting across their shoulders like garlands passed between gods. They are nearly identical, yet subtly distinct, and in that tension blooms a sacred mischief.
Captured by Lucas Varro on large-format black-and-white film in the golden hush of evening, the image was shaped with classical chiaroscuro and later hand-toned in gold. This final gesture—the gold—was not for show, but for remembrance: a way to honour what the light had once touched, and what it now leaves behind.
Printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each impression is hand-toned, signed, and presented in a strictly Limited Edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. These are not multiples, but meditations.
To live with this image is to welcome the hush of joy into your home.
Click here to follow their whispered laughter into the Artist’s Journal.
