By getting down low, moving in, and shooting up with a 24mm wideangle lens, I tried to create a tremendous feeling of authority. Since Buddha represents divinity, and divinity is another form of authority, this effect is appropriate. Once again, this is a three-layer image. The statue, or “image” as it is called in Laos, dominates my foreground layer. But the middle ground layer – a flowing decorative golden panel rising towards heaven, is equally important. Because of this low, close angle, and the distorting optics of the wideangle lens, the ribbon is much wider at the bottom than at the tip. Because of this, it seems to rises toward “heaven,” and as it does it seems to carve an illuminated path through the background layer of darkness. Buddha, the subject, stabilizes the photograph and gives it its identity. But the golden path cutting through darkness on the way to heaven adds critical context for meaning. Without it, it would just be another statue picture.