The surreal art of ‘unnatural lighting’

Introducing man made gentle in a pure atmosphere opens the thoughts to 1 other map of seeing, says photographer and drone pilot Reuben Wu.

The impressive landscapes on Earth can purchase an particular particular person’s breath away. However for Reuben Wu, that wasn’t ample. Wu—a photographer, visible artist, and tune producer—felt that the planet’s majestic mountains, glaciers, and seashores were missing something.

Particularly, unnatural lighting.

The premise was born from a mistake. One evening advance Loss of life Valley, California, Wu location a camera to carry out a time-lapse series in the tedious of night. A pickup truck drove by and washed out the scene with its harsh headlights.

First and valuable, says Wu, “I was truly frustrated. However after I regarded at the photos, I was fascinated. Right here was man made lighting in a pure atmosphere.”

The juxtaposition launched his want to purchase a study adding gentle to other scenes where it didn’t belong: on lakes, in canyons, on huge rock pillars in the barren protest. He flew drones carrying lights in entrance of cameras, taking lengthy exposures—as lengthy as 30 seconds. Then he layered the photos into composites and, in some photos, retouched the last version to purchase away the drone nonetheless slither away the sunshine it solid.

What emerged were incongruous, otherworldly landscapes, each and each a visible puzzle mettlesome the observer to determine how the sort of scene came to be.

Wu photos mostly in the US, where he lives. However in the spirit of exploration, he says, any panorama on Earth is a candidate for the sort of portrait—any scene, anyplace, that may perchance per chance per chance moreover be captured in a mode it doesn’t on the total seem.

Wu intends for the series to confound: Is it nature? Is it art? Disorientation, he says, opens the thoughts to 1 other map of seeing.