Reuben Wu (born 6 September 1975) is a British artist, photographer, and musician. He is also known as a founding member of the electronic band Ladytron.

Biography

Reuben Wu was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1975, the son of

Hongkonger Hongkongers (), Hong Kongers, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people are demonyms that refer to a resident of Hong Kong, although they may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the territory. The earliest inhabitants of Ho ...

immigrants. He trained in

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

, graduating in 1997. Meanwhile, he met Daniel Hunt in Liverpool in 1994; they formed Ladytron in 1999, along with Mira Aroyo and Helen Marnie. Wu finished his MSc in 1998 at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

. He worked as an industrial designer until going full-time with the band in 2002. Wu and Hunt launched the Liverpool nightclub Evol in 2003 and bar/music venue Korova in 2005. Wu co-wrote and produced two songs "Birds of Prey" and "Little Dreamer" for

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

's 2010 album ''

Bionic Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 19 ...

''. Utilizing his skill an artist and designer, Wu illustrated the artwork of the UK edition of Ladytron's first album '' 604'' and was introduced to photography by documenting his travels on tour with the band. His own visual art career began later in 2012 once the band took a sabbatical and he was able to focus full-time on his own creative output. Wu has since created artistic content for GE,

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's Mac OS Big Sur wallpapers,

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and

Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

amongst others. In 2017, Wu was commissioned to photograph the artwork for

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a German record producer and DJ. His stage name, Zedd, was derived from ''zed'', the Z#Name and pronunciation, English pronunciation, barring American English, for ...

and

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as " Love Yourself" and ...

's double-platinum single "

Stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tr ...

" and

& Liam Payne's single " Get Low" in collaboration with Samuel Burgess-Johnson. Wu became a

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

photographer in 2022 after having his first assignment published in the magazine, a cover story on

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

for the August issue. For this story, he used his unconventional drone lighting technique to illuminate the ancient megalith at night. In March 2023, the Stonehenge story won "Online Storytelling Project of the Year" in the Pictures of the Year International Competition, an annual contest for documentary photographers and photojournalists and part of

Pictures of the Year International Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalism, visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an a ...

. In March 2023, Wu announced his departure from Ladytron citing growing commitments to his photography and art career.

Instruments

During Ladytron's live shows, Reuben Wu played

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s. Korg MS-10 was his primary synthesizer for the first four Ladytron tours. Wu played live the following instruments for the band: * Korg MS-10,

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

SH-2 (''604'' tour); * Korg MS-10, Korg Mono/Poly (''Light & Magic'' tour); * Korg MS-10, Korg MS2000B (''Witching Hour'' tour); * Korg MS-10, Korg MS2000B,

Minimoog Voyager The Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a su ...

(''Velocifero'' tour); *

(''Best of 00-10'' and ''Gravity the Seducer'' tours). On the early part of the ''Witching Hour'' tour, Ladytron used to name their four identical Korg MS2000B to enable easier installation on stage. His MS2000B keyboard was named Gloria.

Discography

Ladytron

*'' 604'' (2001) *'' Light & Magic'' (2002) *''

Witching Hour In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immed ...

'' (2005) *'' Velocifero'' (2008) *'' Gravity the Seducer'' (2011) *'' Ladytron'' (2019) *'' Time's Arrow'' (2023)

References

External links

Reuben Wu's Website

Reuben Wu's Instagram

Interview with The Photographic Journal

National Geographic: Surreal Desert Landscapes Painted on a Canvas Made of Sky

The Adventure Photography of Ladytron Co-Founder Reuben Wu
*

ISO50 feature on Reuben Wu's photography {{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Reuben 1975 births Living people Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University Alumni of the University of Liverpool British Asian musicians Photographers from Liverpool Musicians from Liverpool Ladytron members British electronic dance music DJs English people of Hong Kong descent