Daily Inspiration: Meet Ben Nurhaci Lu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Nurhaci Lu.

Hi Ben Nurhaci, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Blockbuster is a precious memory etched in the annals of my family’s history. As a child, my father and I would lose ourselves among the metal shelves, wandering through the labyrinthine rows in search of films.

Often, we encountered foreign films devoid of subtitles, yet I found myself deciphering the narratives through visual storytelling. These moments demanded my attention to the nuances of performance, to the unspoken language of expression. It was a revelation, that I could grasp the essence of emotion and meaning despite the vast chasms of language and culture that lay between me and the screen.

During my years in college, I wandered through the many realms of film production, each offering its unique allure. Amidst this journey, one role captured my soul with an unanticipated intensity. The moment arrived when I filmed with an ARRI SR III camera, and I stood in awe as I witnessed how images could transform the tangible reality of our world into the boundless landscape of our imagination. It was in this profound experience that the seeds of my aspiration to become a cinematographer were sown, laying a foundation as enduring as stone.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I grew up in a middle-class family in Taiwan, with my younger brother by my side. We never had to worry about much. Life unfolded gently, quietly, wrapped in the soft rhythms of a bourgeois existence. We went to school, cared for pets, and passed the days without urgency. No worries were chasing us, and no great ambition was pulling. It was a life of peace, and of a kind of innocence.

Then, when I was twenty, on a most ordinary evening at home, I turned to my mother and told her I wished to walk the path of Buddhism. There was no thunderclap, no divine sign—only a quiet, persistent voice under the current: I want to be better.

Not knowing what and how to be better, nor where such a path would lead. I stepped forward anyway—into a journey inward, toward the source of who I am.

I have walked the ascetic path, rejecting the material world, and neglecting my emotions. I hid from the chaos outside and ignored the tides within.

But what is hidden never disappears. Slowly, confusion bloomed. The pressure imploded and clashed inwards, it was void that he found, with the taste of bitter despair and emptiness. Depression devoured him, he ached the meaning of life, so eagerly to discover one, if there is even any.

Then one night, I dreamed. My grandfather, whom I never met in life, invited me to the afterlife. I found myself beside a mid-century fountain carved from white marble, beneath a blinding white sun, pondering. Images of my family emerged, shuffling through, my mother, father, and younger brother. In the final vision, I was a giant striding barefoot across the earth’s curvature, crossing mountain ranges with the stars overhead. Finally, my voice, trembling yet resolute, I told god: “I’m staying in the human realm for a while longer, there are missions to be fulfilled. Please bless me. Stand by me.”

When I opened my eyes, it was 6 a.m. A shaft of sunlight slipped between the blinds and warmed the room.
I went on a long and deep introspection. I began to turn outward—to feel again. I welcomed emotions not as enemies but as visitors. Allowing the thousands thoughts pass through, purely observing from a distance without judgements. I no longer sought to conquer the self but to understand it.

There is still much to practice: The art of mindfulness. The transcendence of dualities.

It is a long road, but every inch is the path itself, there are no detours. Everything arises from causes, and in time, I begin to see: the goal is never far away.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a cinematographer, I listen before I speak — to light, to space, to the quiet undercurrents between people. I don’t believe in flashy images for the sake of style. What moves me is subtlety — a camera that breathes with a character, a shaft of light that says what words can’t. Whether I’m working on something intimate or epic, I’m always searching for what feels lived-in and real.

No need to announce the hand behind the camera. Instead, I strive for folding seamlessly into the fabric of the world, guiding the audience with an invisible hand. Light, shadow, composition — all are treated as instruments in service of something larger: emotion, connection, memory.

While I take pride in the craft, it’s intuition I rely on the most. I want to create work that lingers, deeply — long after the screen goes dark.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shalu.myportfolio.com/work
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benludp/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/1096158361/5e3fcd9706?fl=pl&fe=sh

Image Credits
Nic Caceres