Photographs by Reuben Wu

Inspiration for photographer and visual artist Reuben Wu’s Aeroglyphs series came serendipitously. As Wu was filming a time-lapse video in the California desert one night in 2014, a truck drove by, illuminating the terrain in a way “that doesn’t happen naturally,” he says. Since then, Wu has traveled to some of the world’s most remote landscapes to recreate that effect. Piloting LED-equipped drones, Wu draws illuminated shapes in the sky and captures them using long exposure photography. His hope, he says, is to share his rare glimpse of these landscapes with as many people as possible: “If I can help change people’s perceptions of the world and help preserve these places in a small way, I’ll be happy.”