To Be Named by Light
There is a light that does not illuminate, but remembers.
High within the eastern wall of Angkor Wat’s central sanctuary, a solitary figure waits in silence. She is carved not to dance, but to abide. Her form is a study in balance—stone becoming presence, ornament yielding to stillness. She does not reveal herself. She receives the hour.
The image was created at day’s end, as the fire of sunset reflected inward through the sacred geometry of the sanctuary. The artist stood in hush. The camera was not prepared to capture—but to witness. No beam struck her directly, and yet she burned. The light that reached her did so not as vision, but as recognition.
Rendered on large-format black-and-white film, the photograph was shaped in the studio using classical chiaroscuro. The final print is hand-toned in gold, mirroring the sanctified glow that crowned her—not with artifice, but with reverence.
Where the Light Became Her Name belongs to a deeper category of image—one that listens. Within the Spirit of Angkor series, it marks a quiet threshold: the sacred feminine not as form or gesture, but as the sanctum of unspoken memory.
She is not portrayed. She is remembered.
Collector’s Print Folio Statement
She abides high within the holiest wall of Angkor Wat, carved in sublime high relief. In the final breath of day, fire reflects from stone and names her once more.
This print was made using large-format black-and-white film, shaped with chiaroscuro, and hand-toned in gold by the artist—not to embellish, but to honour. It is printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, in a strictly limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs.
It is offered not as an image, but as the silence that holds presence.
Also in Library
From Mountain to Monastery
Angkor Wat survived by learning to change its posture. Built as a summit for gods and kings, it became a place of dwelling for monks and pilgrims. As belief shifted from ascent to practice, stone yielded to routine—and the mountain learned how to remain inhabited.
Why Theravada Could Outlast Stone
Theravada endured by refusing monumentality. It shifted belief from stone to practice, from kings to villages, from permanence to repetition. What it preserved was not form but rhythm—robes, bowls, chants, and lives lived close together—allowing faith to travel when capitals fell and temples emptied.
The End of Sanskrit at Angkor
The final Sanskrit inscription at Angkor does not announce an ending. It simply speaks once more, with elegance and certainty, into a world that had begun to listen differently. Its silence afterward marks not collapse, but a quiet transfer of meaning—from stone and proclamation to practice, breath, and impermanence.
$270
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
11.75 x 5.6 inches (29.8 x 14.2 cm)
She stands in silence, not as a relic of devotion, but as its source—a solitary goddess set within the holiest sanctuary of Angkor Wat, receiving the last golden breath of day.
Carved high on the eastern wall—across from the setting sun—she does not perform. She does not turn. She remains. The shadows gather around her, but do not claim her. Her presence is more than stone. It is invocation.
The artist arrived in that hour of hush, when the air stilled and light bent inward, reflecting from the sandstone walls of the sanctuary itself. Standing before her, he did not seek a photograph. He awaited a blessing. The exposure was long. The silence, longer. The moment, eternal.
Captured on large-format black-and-white film, shaped with classical chiaroscuro, and later hand-toned in gold, the image echoes the light that once crowned her—not to mimic, but to honour.
Each signed print is hand-toned on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper in a strictly limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. It is offered as presence, not object.
Let her gaze become the stillness in your space.
Click here to enter the Artist’s Journal and walk deeper into the sanctum.
