Multidisciplinary visual artist, photographer, and director Reuben Wu inscribes light onto remote natural environments through experimental photographic interventions in his latest series, Thin Places. Known for his haunting aerial compositions using drones, lasers, and long exposures, the artist has developed a unique visual language that brings photography, design, and speculative technology together. In Thin Places, Wu frames landscapes where artificial light and natural terrain seem to meet halfway. The images are captured entirely on-site, in single exposures, using drones and lasers to trace fleeting geometries into the environment.

One standout work from the series, Surface Tension, was photographed at a remote salt lake under a moonless sky. Using a custom aerial laser swept just above the water’s surface, Wu renders a floating curtain of light, revealing crystalline salt structures caught between the stars above and their reflections below. 

all images by Reuben Wu

Thin Places builds on the foundation of SIREN series

The project’s title, Thin Places, references a Celtic notion of geographical thresholds, spaces where the boundary between the physical and the spiritual dissolves. Wu interprets this concept through interventions with light, shaping fields of perception without altering the land. 

Thin Places follows the Chicago-based artist’s earlier series SIREN, a triptych made in August 2024 on the shores of Lake Michigan, which marked a turning point in his approach. There, vertical shafts of drone light play against the presence of an unexpected aurora. These early works laid the groundwork for the more atmospheric and spatially abstract compositions in Thin Places, where light becomes a sculptural medium.

Wu uses a 102MP Fujifilm GFX100RF medium format system and manually guided lighting technologies in his process, which remains entirely analog in execution, and creates each image in-camera. The work doesn’t follow the usual approach when it comes to landscape photography, as it doesn’t rely on post-production or compositing. The resulting photographs depend on timing, endurance, and precision and feel like documentation of extraterrestrial phenomena — yet they are rooted in this world, shaped by the unpredictable conditions of wind, terrain, and moonlight.

Reuben Wu inscribes light onto remote natural environments in his latest series, Thin Places

the project’s title, Thin Places, references a Celtic notion of geographical thresholds

the visual artist is known for his haunting aerial compositions

Wu frames landscapes where artificial light and natural terrain seem to meet halfway

Thin Places follows the Chicago-based artist’s earlier series SIREN

vertical shafts of drone light play against the presence of an unexpected aurora

Wu uses a 102MP Fujifilm GFX100RF medium format system

the work doesn’t rely on post-production or compositing

shaping fields of perception without altering the land

project info:

name: Thin Places, SIREN

photographer: Reuben Wu | @reuben

The post reuben wu draws aerial geometries with drones and lasers across remote landscapes appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

all images by reuben wu

inspired by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro paintings and science fiction, the light storm series by reuben wu has been created for clothing brand vollebak. the notion of journey and discovery, as well as his love for new technology and the opportunities it brings to modern storytelling are present in these photographs that blend the limit between real and surreal. is this planet earth or did wu travel to mars? 

in some pictures, we see how wu uses light emitted from GPS-enabled drones to create a halo effect around the erosion. this light is also present in the other pictures, but not in the form of a halo, but simply illuminating certain parts of the landscape, as if divine light was exposing these natural phenomenons. like wu tells colossal, ‘the project is about presenting familiar sights in a new and unfamiliar light, renewing your sense of seeing and the experience of discovery.’

to see more of reuben wu’s work make sure you visit his instagram and behance pages.

project info:

name: light storm

artist: reuben wu

in collaboration with: vollebak

The post reuben wu uses drones to illuminate utah’s erosional landscapes in light storm series appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

images courtesy of reuben wu / phase one

‘when I first started using drone lights in my photography, I just wanted to shoot landscapes at night and needed something to light the scene,’ wu explains. ‘I didn’t include the actual light paths. but then I noticed how the different shapes created by the light interacted with the landscape and decided to keep them in the final image. now I see it as a way to involve myself with the landscape, as the personal mark I add to a specific scenery.’

using the drones to create light paths, wu constructs geometric shapes that appear like halos hovering over the landscape. he uses them to illuminate inaccessible places like mountains, valleys and other remote locations.

for his most recent ‘lux noctis’ images, reuben wu travelled to bolivia sponsored by phase one, a danish company specializing in high-end digital photography equipment. wu used the brand’s XT camera system — a 150-megapixel model that costs $57,000 — to capture the country’s dynamic terrain.

video by phase one

‘my favorite memory from the trip to bolivia is shooting the salt flats at sunset. the salt forms these beautiful polygon-like shapes on the ground and, as the sun was setting, the shadows formed by the salt ridges became longer and longer, and so the landscape would look different every few seconds.

‘being there and watching the landscape change as the sunset moved across it, that feeling just stuck with me.’

project info:

photographer: reuben wu

company: phase one

camera: phase one XT 

series: lux noctis

The post reuben wu uses drone LEDs to illuminate bolivia’s remote landscapes appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

all images courtesy of the photography

light from the GPS-enabled drones create a halo effect around mountaintops that reuben wu captures in photographs. drenched light is calculated by wu who than captures it along with resulting trails throughout the series. 

the work depicts ‘landscapes within the framework of traditional landscape photography‘ but is ‘influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, 19th century sublime romantic painting, and science fiction‘, it explains on wu’s website. ‘we are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world’, it continues. devoid of human life, the compositions capture mountainous with an ethereal tone. 

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chicago-based artist reuben wu photographs the series ‘an uncommon place’, ‘XI’ and ‘cross country’ as an attempt to convey the relationship between landscape and artifact. the projects see an awe-inspiring point of view through wu’s lens, comprising panoramas of the natural world, interspersed with images of urban life. wu chooses a color palette of pastel greens, pinks, yellows and blues that draw the viewer into a surreal place, one that reminds of an otherworldly, alien landscape. the compositions, many of them devoid of human life, describe mountainous cliffs and starry skies in a simple and straightforward manner, yet with an ethereal tone that reflects a hauntingly surreal sensibility.

from ‘an uncommon place’

from ‘cross country’

from ‘an uncommon place’

from ‘XI’

from ‘cross country’

from ‘XI’

from ‘XI’

from ‘XI’

from ‘an uncommon place’

from ‘an uncommon place’

from ‘an uncommon place’

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