Vigil in Stone, Breath in Silver
What endures does not resist. It listens.
At the western threshold of Preah Khan, where the sacred moat breathes mist into the still-dark hour, a single guardian keeps watch. Not with ferocity, but with stillness. The Deva—one arm weathered, the other gentled by time—leans toward the unknown with a tenderness sculpted by centuries. Yet both arms remain. They still cradle the coiled naga Vasuki, not as symbol, but as act of quiet memory.
Lucas Varro stood in that hush, knowing the image would not arrive through effort. The exposure, captured on medium-format black-and-white film, took in the breath of mist, the worn grace of stone, the slow turning of night into memory. Later, in the studio, chiaroscuro techniques helped draw forth the depth the light had whispered. Hand-toning added warmth, not colour—a gesture of reverence. The print was not made. It was kept.
Where Silence Keeps Watch is offered as an archival pigment print on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, in a limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. Each print is signed and numbered on the border recto. The edition is small. The presence is not.
This is not a record of Angkor. It is its breath, shaped in silver.
Also in Library
The Silence of Scales
A staircase inhales, and silence thickens between stone scales. Each step remembers serpents once carved, pearl-light gathering in its breath. In this luminous flash gem, a traveller climbs toward hush and revelation, where silence itself becomes flame. A tale brief as an exhalation, yet lingering like pearl-light beneath moss.
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.
$250
Preah Khan Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2024
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)
The morning opens like a held breath over Preah Khan, mist unraveling across the moat until stone and water share the same hush. A guardian Deva—scarred by centuries yet unbowed—leans toward the unseen, his remaining arms still gently encircling the naga Vasuki, his silence deeper than the water below.
In that pale interval before birdsong, Lucas Varro stood motionless, feeling the statue’s weathered poise reflect the stillness within his own chest. The lens became less an instrument than a listening ear, attending to the syllables of light as they brushed lichen-flecked skin.
Captured on medium-format analogue black-and-white film with a long exposure that welcomed the drifting vapor, the negative journeyed home to the darkroom. There, classical chiaroscuro guided shadows into dimension, and careful hand-toning breathed warmth into silver so the final print might pulse with the same quiet awe that stirred beside the moat.
Printed as a museum-grade archival pigment work on sustainable Hahnemühle Bamboo paper and restricted to twenty-five numbered prints with two Artist’s Proofs, each sheet embodies a vow of presence and rarity.
Welcome this vigil of quiet stone.
Click here to follow the misted path into the Artist’s Journal.
