Srah Srang – Where the Light Arrives Softly

Photographs from the Spirit of Angkor series by Lucas Varro

At Srah Srang, the sacred is not built—it is reflected. This ancient baray, once a royal bathing place, opens like a mirror to the sky, its vast stillness edged by the broken stone terraces of a temple that once greeted the dawn. Facing east, it receives the light first—a sanctuary not of towers, but of water, breath, and luminous beginning.

Here, lions sit at the edge of eternity. Steps descend into what was once a holy lake, cupped in silence. Though the temple structures have faded, the essence remains: the stillness of offering, the vastness of devotion without walls.

In this meditative collection from the Spirit of Angkor series, Lucas Varro brings his analogue cameras to Srah Srang in early morning quiet. Each image—captured on large and medium format black-and-white film, shaped through long exposure, chiaroscuro, and hand-toning—becomes an act of listening. Light softened by mist. Water holding the sky. A fragment of balustrade lit like a blessing.

Printed in limited editions on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each photograph is accompanied by a Collector’s Print Package including poetic writings, curatorial reflections, and field notes from the artist’s pre-dawn pilgrimages to this luminous threshold.

This is not a collection of monuments, but of moments—where spirit meets surface, and the sacred unfolds without sound.