Golden Goddesses
Apsaras in Light and Stone
From the Spirit of Angkor series by Lucas Varro
They are not frozen in stone,
but listening—
for the silence in us that still remembers.
Angkor’s apsaras—celestial dancers, devatas, guardians of sacred joy—grace the walls of these sanctuaries with a presence at once eternal and intimate. Carved more than eight centuries ago and bathed in temple light, they remain astonishingly alive: bare-shouldered, adorned with jewels and flame-like crowns, each one entirely unique, as if dreamt into being by a different hand.
In these hand-toned portraits, shaped from black-and-white film and bathed in subtle gold, Lucas Varro captures the hush that gathers around them at dawn and dusk. The prints are not merely monochrome—they are kissed with the gilded breath of morning light. Shaped through chiaroscuro and the slow gaze of analogue exposure, each image becomes a threshold—a moment where the divine feminine still breathes through shadow, time, and stone.
This collection invites you to dwell in their quiet presence. Not merely to see carvings, but to behold goddesses.
They do not call loudly.
But if you pause… they will speak.
