Oku No Ma

Anyone who has been to Angkor Wat knows the drill: you spend half your time waiting for tour groups to move out of the frame. It is usually chaos. So when I wandered down this corridor and found it completely dead silent, I couldn't believe my luck. The light was cutting through the dark perfectly, and for once, there wasn't a soul in sight.
I lined it up fast, desperate to capture that rare, empty stillness before someone ruined it.
Click.
Right as the shutter fired, she stepped out from the shadows, straight into the centre of the shot.
My heart sank. I actually lowered the camera in frustration, convinced she had torched the shot. I’d missed my empty hallway by a fraction of a second. It wasn't until I looked at the playback screen that I realised how wrong I was. The empty hallway would have been cold, just another picture of old rocks. She gave it a pulse. Sometimes the mistake is better than the plan. 
I went with Oku no Ma for the title. It’s a Japanese concept about the 'innermost space' the idea that true depth is hidden in the shadows, creating a pull that drags you further in. That’s exactly what this hallway does. She’s standing right in that Oku, the deep interior. She stopped being a random tourist and became the secret at the heart of the maze.