What the Light Chose to Remember
The air was holding its breath.
At the western gate of Angkor Wat, the last gold of day lingered without urgency, pooling at the edge of stone. Above me, high in the façade, she stood—unmoved, unbroken. A devata not defined by gesture or adornment, but by presence. Not watching. Not waiting. Simply there.
She received nothing. It was she who gave. Her silence was the kind that outlives centuries. Her gaze did not invite—it endured.
I placed the tripod slowly, knowing I would not take this image. I would wait for it to arrive.
What the lens received that evening was not light, but memory. What passed through the film was not exposure, but recognition. In the studio, I did not tone for effect. I offered gold as one offers breath—to return what had once touched her face.
Each impression I finish carries the hush of that hour. No two are alike, and yet each one remembers the same silence.
stone warmed by the dusk—
a light no longer visible
lives behind the gaze
Also in My Journal
The Worm of Salt and Silence: A Myth of Creation and Ruin
The Worm of Salt and Silence rises from the ocean's depths, devouring, transforming, and shaping the land. As a boy enters its jaws, the boundaries of hunger and creation collapse, giving birth to a new world. This myth of death and rebirth unfolds in tides of flame and silence.
The Gate Beneath the Temple
A gate listens where a temple breathes. Smoke clings like a mirror, vows soften like wax, and every prayer falls downward as bread to a mouth carved in stone. Hunger speaks in liturgy and withdraws in hush. You feel the crown’s weight without jewels. You hear it. You carry it.
A Scroll Carried by Wind
Zhou Daguan came to Angkor to observe—but found a kingdom that defied explanation. This introductory scroll welcomes new readers into The Wind That Carried Me to Zhenla: a poetic resurrection of the 13th-century emissary’s journey, revoiced with reverence, wonder, and the hush of temple stone.
$270
Angkor Wat Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2019
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
11.5 x 5.8 inches (29.2 x 14.7 cm)
Evening gathers gently at the western gate of Angkor Wat, and for a breathless moment, the stone holds the sun. There, carved high above the temple threshold, a devata appears not as ornament, but as remembrance—her gaze serene, her gesture offering what cannot be named.
The air is hushed. The wind recedes. And in that luminous hush, she glows—not from the light that strikes her, but from the light she holds.
Lucas Varro captured this image in 2019, using large-format black-and-white film under the final warmth of day. The long exposure was a stillness held in reverence. In the studio, chiaroscuro shaped her form, and gold was applied by hand—not for effect, but as offering. The result is not merely a photograph, but a devotional act rendered in shadow and light.
This signed and numbered archival pigment print is offered in a Strictly Limited Edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. Printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each impression is individually hand-toned in gold and carries its own quiet radiance.
A sacred light that endures, waiting to enter the stillness of your space.
Click here to enter the Artist’s Journal and walk deeper into the silence.
