Biography

I was born in Liverpool in 1975 to parents who had immigrated from Hong Kong. Growing up in the northwest of England, I found freedom in the nearby national parks, places where I felt truly myself.

As a child, I loved drawing and wanted more than anything else to become an artist, but my mother, concerned about the financial realities of an art career, wisely encouraged me to find a more stable career path. Following my parents’ guidance, I pursued Industrial Design at university, though my academic focus often took a backseat to DJing, collecting records and enjoying Sheffield’s vibrant music scene.

After graduating, my passion for music led me back to Liverpool’s creative community. With Daniel Hunt, Mira Aroyo, and Helen Marnie, I formed Ladytron in 1999. Our first single immediately earned Single of the Week in the NME. Soon we were signed to a label and invited on a world tour, and I left my job at an industrial design consultancy to dedicate the next decade to music.

Life in a touring band opened my world in unexpected ways. Between shows, I began photographing our travels, initially as a simple tour diary. This casual documentation gradually evolved into an obsession. In 2011, I took my first dedicated photography trip to Svalbard, capturing the high Arctic landscape during polar winter when the sun never fully rises. This journey produced my first cohesive body of work independent from my travels with the band.

When Ladytron took a break shortly after, I again faced the challenge of reinvention. Though uncertain, I committed to pursuing photography professionally. After years of persistence and occasional strokes of luck, I established myself in the field, bringing my own visual perspective shaped by my design and musical background.

A breakthrough came in 2014 at Trona Pinnacles, when a truck’s headlights accidentally illuminated the landscape during a night shoot. This moment of serendipity inspired Lux Noctis, a project where I attach powerful lights to drones to illuminate remote landscapes. By controlling artificial light in remote environments, I could create scenes that hovered between reality and fiction.

My visual language evolved into Aeroglyphs: geometric light patterns created by capturing drone flight paths through long exposures. These temporary light drawings exist only in the dimension of time visible through photography, leaving no physical trace on the environment.

My work has taken me from Peru’s rapidly retreating Pastoruri Glacier to the ancient monument of Stonehenge for National Geographic. Drawing on my multidisciplinary background, I’ve expanded beyond still photography into audiovisual pieces that merge sound, light, and land. This approach has found recognition in both the fine art world, with work in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the MoMA, and commercial projects for brands like Apple, Mercedes-Benz, and Google.

Today, I see myself less as a photographer and more as an artist who uses photography as one tool among many. I connect seemingly disparate elements to create something new, and believe the future belongs to interdisciplinary thinking. Looking back, I have come full circle to become the artist I always wanted to be. My mother’s practical advice, which initially seemed to divert me from an artistic path, ultimately led me through experiences that have shaped the person I am today.

I now live in Chicago, having moved to the USA in 2013.

A young Reuben Wu in a playhouse built by his dad
A young fine artist in a denim jacket stands with hands in pockets, looking at the camera against a white background.
Four people in dark clothing stand side by side against a plain, light background, their serious expressions evoking the dramatic flair of drone light art.
A photographer captures a stunning shot with a camera on a tripod by a calm lake at sunset, skillfully blending elements of nighttime landscape photography.
Man with dark hair and a brown jacket looks at the camera outdoors in soft, natural light—a futuristic vibe reminiscent of nighttime landscape photography.

📷: Dad, Craig Easton, Unknown, Zac Henderson, ASUS

Exhibitions

  • 2025    VITAL: Our Irreplaceable Earth, Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, USA
    2025    Measures Of Time, Maven Gallery, Witchita, USA
    2025    10 Photographs, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, USA
  • 2025    Aeroglyph, Photoville, Brookfields Place, New York City, USA
  • 2025    Digital Decadence: The Art of Falling Apart, Offline/Superrare, New York City, USA
  • 2020    Change, aboard National Geographic Endurance Ship, Arctic Circle
  • 2019    Aeroglyphs & other Nocturnes, PhotoEye Gallery, Santa Fe, USA
  • 2019    AIPAD, New York City, USA
  • 2019    PhotoEye Gallery, Santa Fe, USA
  • 2019    PhotoLA, Los Angeles, USA
  • 2015    The Fence, Photoville, Brooklyn Bridge Park, USA
  • 2015    Realities & Concepts, Month of Photography Group Show, USA
  • 2014    Infinite Sustain, Lot21 Gallery, San Francisco, USA
  • 2014    Distant Horizons, Schneider Gallery, Chicago

Collections

  • Lux Noctis, The Guggenheim Museum, NYC, USA
  • Lux Noctis, The Metropolitan Museum, NYC, USA
  • Lux Noctis, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, USA
  • Lux Noctis, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Monographs

  • Lux Noctis, 2018, Kris Graves Projects, New York City, USA
  • Aeroglyphs & Other Nocturnes, 2020, PhotoEye Gallery, Santa Fe, USA

Essays

Talks

Selected Clients

  • Apple
  • Acura
  • Asus
  • Audi
  • GE
  • Interscope
  • Land Rover
  • Mercedes-Benz
  • Lexus
  • Nike
  • National Geographic
  • Road & Track
  • Volkswagen
  • Wired

Selected Press