Held in the Light of What Was Once Known
“When light became memory,
stone remembered how to touch.”
In the quiet corridors of Angkor Wat’s Cruciform Galleries, Lucas Varro encountered something rare: not just divine form, but divine familiarity. Two apsaras—leaning together, carved into the temple’s western wall—held a tenderness not often seen in the sacred architecture of Angkor. Shoulder met shoulder, hip touched hip. One smiled, her teeth visible. It is one of only a handful of such smiles across the vast stone faces of the temple.
Varro did not begin with exposure. He began with breath. Sketching, returning, waiting for the light that would remember them as he had. It came in the final hush of day. The sun, filtered through jungle canopy, struck the walls with molten reverence. The moment was not captured. It was received.
The final photograph was composed on large-format black-and-white film. Later, shaped through chiaroscuro, it was hand-toned in gold—mirroring the warmth that once flowed between their forms. The process was slow, contemplative, devotional. Each print becomes an extension of that hush: the silence between lifetimes, the breath that preceded memory.
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The Caress Between Lifetimes is an archival pigment print on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, available in a strictly limited edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. It is a meditation in form—a sculpted memory that leans close and waits.
This is not a portrait. It is a presence.
Also in My Journal
The Worm of Salt and Silence: A Myth of Creation and Ruin
The Worm of Salt and Silence rises from the ocean's depths, devouring, transforming, and shaping the land. As a boy enters its jaws, the boundaries of hunger and creation collapse, giving birth to a new world. This myth of death and rebirth unfolds in tides of flame and silence.
The Gate Beneath the Temple
A gate listens where a temple breathes. Smoke clings like a mirror, vows soften like wax, and every prayer falls downward as bread to a mouth carved in stone. Hunger speaks in liturgy and withdraws in hush. You feel the crown’s weight without jewels. You hear it. You carry it.
A Scroll Carried by Wind
Zhou Daguan came to Angkor to observe—but found a kingdom that defied explanation. This introductory scroll welcomes new readers into The Wind That Carried Me to Zhenla: a poetic resurrection of the 13th-century emissary’s journey, revoiced with reverence, wonder, and the hush of temple stone.
$280
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
12.75 x 5.1 inches (32.4 x 13 cm)
The sun was descending when he found them—two apsaras leaning toward each other in the Cruciform Galleries of Angkor Wat, aglow with the warmth of a dying day. Their embrace was sculptural, eternal. One smiled.
The air carried chants from deeper in the temple. Around them: movement. But here, between these figures, was stillness. Their closeness held a sensuality not of the body, but of breath—a bond shaped in silence, lit from within.
Lucas Varro returned again and again, sketching, watching, waiting. The image was captured on large-format black-and-white film, using long exposure and classical chiaroscuro techniques. Later, in quiet devotion, he hand-toned the print in gold to mirror the light he could not forget.
This signed and numbered edition of 25 + 2 Artist’s Proofs is printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper. Each print is a threshold of presence, crafted to embody sacred intimacy and reincarnational memory.
A caress that lingers longer than time.
Click here to enter the Artist’s Journal and step through the silence between shadow and gold.
