When Silence Blooms
The jungle hush before dawn is not absence but breathing—an inhalation wide as the sky itself. I arrive in darkness, folding open the mahogany limbs of the 8 × 10, feeling dew bead on wood and skin. The pond before Angkor Wat lies unbroken, a pool of waiting thought. In that dimness, sound grows delicate: the soft press of a shutter cable between my fingertips, the faint settling of distant roof tiles as night loosens its grip.
Gradually the clouded ceiling brightens, not with color but with texture—a slow feathering of grey upon deeper grey. The towers stir in reflection long before stone distinguishes itself from shadow. It is as though water remembers them first, offering an echo so the world might recall its shape. My exposure begins on the threshold of this remembering, a drawn-out breath that neither rushes nor lingers.
Lotus dawn mirrors
stone towers inhale first light—
silence walks on water
The shutter closes as gently as a monk touching prayer beads. In the moment afterwards, the air feels newly rung, tuned to a quieter pitch. Hours later, in the darkroom, I stand once more at that pond—this time waist-deep in fixer and hush—guiding silver toward its final hush. Hand-toning is a second vigil: shadows softened until they confess faint glimmers, highlights cooled to the tone of half-lit marble. Each wash of pigment becomes a translation of stillness, coaxing the pond’s breath onto paper.
When the print finally dries, I see no image so much as a held silence: five spires hovering, sky kneeling on water. It allows viewers not to look but to listen, to feel the slow blooming of dawn inside their own breath.
Also in Library
Hands of the Sculptor — The Craft as Meditation
In the hush of the galleries, the sculptor listens rather than strikes.
Each breath, each measured blow, opens silence a little further.
Unfinished reliefs reveal the moment when mastery becomes meditation—
when patience itself is carved into being,
and the dust that falls at a mason’s feet becomes the residue of prayer.
The Asura Within
At the gates of Angkor Thom, gods and demons share a single serpent.
Across this bridge of struggle the pilgrim learns that the asura is not evil but unfinished — the restless force within each of us still grasping for light.
To cross the naga is to balance passion with compassion, struggle with stillness, shadow with dawn.
Garuda and the Serpent · Flight and Surrender
Between Garuda’s wings and the Nāga’s coils, Angkor breathes its oldest truth: flight and surrender are one motion. In the carvings where sky and water entwine, the pilgrim learns that freedom depends upon gravity, and that stillness itself is a kind of flight.
$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
8 x 8 inches (20.3 x 20.3 cm)
Dawn enters on a breath so soft it barely stirs the palms. Over the lotus pond, the five towers of Angkor Wat rise not in stone, but in reflection—sky doubling back into water, memory leaning toward form.
The hush is complete. Wind holds its voice. Light kneels. In this early hour, Lucas Varro stood unseen, lens poised at the water’s edge. Reverence guided the exposure—a slow inhalation of the moment as the towers drifted into mirrored stillness.
Captured on 8×10 black-and-white film, the image was later shaped in the darkroom through classical chiaroscuro and hand-toned with care. Shadow and light were coaxed gently forward, honoring the atmosphere of that silent hour.
Each impression is a museum-grade archival pigment print on sustainable Hahnemühle Bamboo, limited to 25 prints with 2 Artist’s Proofs, signed and numbered on the border recto.
Let this reflection become the still water of your interior shrine.
To step softly into the hush of mirrored dawn, click here and enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Dawn Reflection, Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia. 2020,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.
