Eternal Angkor Project

This project came into being in 1999 when I first visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia and saw the beauty of these ancient temples. Since then I have returned to Angkor Wat on numerous occasions to build up the project. What fascinates me about the site is the power of nature. The temples rising from the Earth, that were built by humankind as a place of high devotion, to them being abandoned and nature taking them back. Mammoth trees rise out of many of the temples ripping them apart slowly. Weather over time has ravaged the carvings, indeed destroyed many of them, but at the same time made them into a new form of beauty. They have been transformed into potent Nature temples. If every temple were weathered or destroyed down to the last grain of rock, the temples would still be there for eternity. I have photographed the Angkor Wat Temples mainly concentrating on the finite details of the carvings, the transformation of them over time and also looking at the devotion that was highly apparent at the time they were built. Every single piece of stone that was erected was carved upon. My photographic project is not intended as a travel guide to the temples of Angkor. Instead it is to convey my emotional response to this place of mystery, wonder and beauty, emphasising the force of nature over humankind.