Sanctuary of the Sword and the Stillness

Photographs from Preah Khan Temple by Lucas Varro

Preah Khan is a temple of thresholds—built as both sanctuary and sword, palace and prayer. Once a centre of learning and devotion, its vast corridors unfold like a labyrinth of memory: lintels worn smooth by centuries of touch, roots winding through broken sanctums, light slipping like breath across the stones.

Constructed by Jayavarman VII to honour his father, Preah Khan holds within its crumbling grandeur a quiet tension—between ruin and reverence, conquest and compassion, emptiness and sacred trace. Here, silence gathers in chambers where dancers once swirled, and moonlight drapes across a still-standing stupa at the heart of the sanctuary.

In this contemplative collection from the Spirit of Angkor series, Lucas Varro brings his analogue cameras to the softened austerity of Preah Khan. Each photograph—captured on large or medium format black-and-white film, shaped by long exposure, chiaroscuro, and hand-toning—distils the temple’s presence into pure atmosphere. A devata faded but smiling. A doorway dissolving into mist. A single root embracing stone like prayer.

Printed in limited editions on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each work is accompanied by a Collector’s Print Package including poetic writings, curatorial reflections, and field notes from the artist’s dawn pilgrimages through the temple’s sacred ruins.

This is Preah Khan not as relic, but as witness. A vast, breathing sanctum where stillness is the final inscription.