The Moment Between Faces
The terrace held its breath long before I arrived. A hush not of absence, but of waiting—woven into the stone itself. Before me, two faces stood in accord. The nearer, softened by centuries of weather and watchfulness. The farther, bathed in dawn’s first silver breath.
Their gaze was not directed outward, but toward one another. Or perhaps inward, toward something older than vision: a vow. I stood quietly between them, not as observer but as offering. My presence thinned, dissolved.
Stone dawn opening
two unmoving mouths exchange
the breath we forget
The shutter fell with the gentleness of an eyelid. Later, in the darkroom, I would coax that breath into shadow and light. But here, it was enough to be seen by the unseen.
Also in Library
The Apsara Against the Assembly Line
In the darkroom, the print rises slowly from the tray: silver darkening into shadow, stone gathering itself from blankness. At Angkor, the apsaras offer the same lesson. Though repeated in their thousands, each waits to be seen. Against the assembly line of speed and sameness, slowness restores the soul’s signature.
The Wall That Still Holds Them
Two presences endure within a wall that no longer closes seamlessly around them. One withdraws into shadow; the other comes further into the light of legibility. Around them, fracture, erosion, and carved stone become a single field of custody, where grace survives within damage, not beyond it.
The Lantern Chronicles · A Growing Library of Stone, Fire, Thought, and Silence
A brief note for readers of this Journal: The Lantern Chronicles has grown into a small library of related rooms — Angkor, myth and legend, philosophy, and poetry. If you have found something here that speaks to you, I am now offering a 7-day free trial to step further inside.
$260
Bayon Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2018
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 gathers in Bayon’s corridors like water in a stone bowl, cool and unhurried. Two faces emerge—one cloaked in the last breath of night, the other brushed by the first silver syllable of morning. Their exchange seems less carving than thought made visible.
In this suspended hush, centuries contract to the width of a heartbeat. The terrace beneath me belongs to no empire, only to presence: stone inhaling light, exhaling stillness.
I pressed the shutter only when my breathing matched the temple’s. Medium-format black-and-white film accepted the moment’s slow cadence; in the darkroom I polished shadow and glow as one turns prayer beads, until compassion stirred within the grains. Hand-toning followed, gifting each print its own quiet pulse.
This strictly limited edition of twenty-five prints (with two Artist’s Proofs) rests on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper whose warm fibers cradle silver and carbon like earth cradles seed. Signed, numbered, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, each piece is a silent threshold of reflection.
May it find the wall where your own silence waits.
To walk deeper into the hush behind this image, click here to enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Face Towers I, Bayon Temple, Angkor, Cambodia. 2018,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.