Where Flame Becomes Stillness
The path was empty. The hour just beginning to close. Shadows leaned longer than the stone itself. But there, along the central gate, something remained—not shadow, not light. A hush. She stood in it as if born from it: the devata, carved in high relief, yet untethered from the wall.
She had already gathered the fire. It was there in her crown, in the unfurled flower at her hand. Not radiating, but contained. I remember adjusting the lens as if in reverence, not precision. There are moments when the image is not taken—it is offered. She was not reflecting the sun. She was remembering it.
I stood for a long time before I exposed the film. There was nothing to wait for, and everything. In the studio, the final toning in gold did not complete the image—it completed the vow.
She does not rise—
she receives.
A blessing of flame
without heat,
without end.
Her hand is the altar.
Her gaze is the vow.
Not a goddess above,
but something quieter:
what light becomes
when it knows
it will never return.
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.
$260
Angkor Wat Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2021
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
9.25 x 7.3 inches (23.5 x 18.5 cm)
She waits high above the jungle path—still as a prayer unspoken.
At the western gate of Angkor Wat, a devata stands in stone yet lives in light. Carved centuries ago, she lifts a blossom in silent offering. The air around her is hushed. Her gaze does not hold the present—it holds the sun she once knew. She is not seen. She is felt. She is stillness in the flame of stone.
Lucas Varro composed the image in silence, just as the final warmth of day rose from the sandstone. Captured on large-format black-and-white film with a long exposure, the image was later shaped in the studio through classical chiaroscuro. The hand-toning in gold was the final act—restoring her radiance, gesture by gesture.
Printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, this hand-toned archival pigment print is offered in a strictly limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs.
She carries the fire
without moving.
Click here to follow her golden stillness into the Artist’s Journal.
