The Sacred Woven in Flame and Grace

Photographs from Banteay Srei – Spirit of Angkor series by Lucas Varro

Banteay Srei is the temple of divine intricacy—a sanctuary not of scale, but of spirit. Built in rose-hued sandstone and carved with a delicacy unmatched anywhere in Angkor, it is a hymn to the feminine divine, a temple where beauty is both invocation and offering.

Known as the Citadel of Women, Banteay Srei radiates a grace that feels otherworldly. Its carvings shimmer with celestial dancers, gods in luminous repose, and floral arabesques that seem to rise and breathe from the stone itself. Yet beneath this ornate brilliance lies stillness—a spiritual quiet that echoes across centuries.

In this collection, Lucas Varro turns his black-and-white film cameras toward the temple’s subtle light and sacred refinement. Each photograph is a meditation—shaped through long exposure, chiaroscuro, and hand-toning to honor the fine grain of stone and the spiritual depth it holds. These are not portraits of detail, but invocations of presence.

Printed on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper in limited edition, each work is accompanied by a Collector’s Print Package including poetic writings, curatorial notes, and reflections drawn from the artist’s field journals.

This collection is a reverent dialogue with a temple that whispers. A place where the sacred is not proclaimed—but etched in tenderness, and lit from within.