Meet Keenan Wu | Videographer & Founder of @LightRetrospect

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keenan Wu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keenan, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I’ve always had a crazy imagination growing up. I wanted so badly to believe that the impossible existed and that every person had their own fairytale-like adventure made out for them, including myself. But as I got older, I quickly figured out that life wasn’t cut out like I had envisioned. While pursuing a career that was deemed more financially stable, I felt I had lost a lot of my artistic ability but I’d never lost the passion I had to create something beautiful.

After years of systematically working, the idea of any magic in my everyday life seemed to fade and I became restless wanting to chase that high. Obviously, that ‘high’ now isn’t the same as when I was a kid but the feeling of special moments and memories in my life made them feel magical.

I believe everyone has experienced the same kind of emotions one way or another… a love, a loss, an incredible high or an all-time low, etc. Those moments – captured through cinematography, real or through storytelling – reflect those highs and lows in us even if it isn’t our own memories. Those universal feelings and emotions connect us all with each other without needing to know who the other person is on the flip side of the screen. And that is probably where the true magic lies.

I do believe that everyone envisions their own life to be like a movie or fairytale at one point, whether they like to admit it or not, and I intend to recreate those moments the best that I can. Although I am only starting out, each video that I create brings me so much gratification and fulfillment that I wonder to myself: “Why haven’t I started sooner?”

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Most, if not all of my videos are filmed or have a dedicated slow-motion scene. I just love how that feature really captures the aesthetic of memories or at least a whimsical-like moment in time. Reality is already stressful as it is and making life more cinematic gives us a small outlet of escape, retreating to a moment of time when we felt in tune with ourselves and our emotions, be it happy or sad. My motto for my work is “Life is better in slow motion.”

The biggest lesson I’ve come to learn and probably what I want the world to know about my story is this: Beauty, while in the eye of its beholder, is very subjective. However, the pure emotions we share are universal to some extent, and that is what makes us all beautiful inside and out – perfect for the camera no matter how experienced one might be in front of the lens.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
These are some of my favorite places to visit, hang out, eat, chill, and relax in no particular order.

Personally, I love to visit places where there is some commotion going on. It’s a form of brown noise for me and a lively atmosphere. Railway Heights, Rice Village, M-K-T, Puttery, Axelrad Beer Garden, Galleria, Memorial City Mall, Uptown Park, the River Oaks District, Memorial Park, Levy Park, Buffalo Bayou Park, and Hermann Park.

That being said, many of those areas mentioned above have incredible places to eat but these are my go-to restaurants outside commercial centers. Tiny Champions, Empie Cafe, French Rivera Bakery Cafe, Tapester’s Grill, Little Hen, Roost, and restaurants around the Dun Huang Plaza.

Favorite coffee shops/houses: BHBG Coffee, Sunday Press, The Black Hole, Mercantile, Campesino Coffee House, The Coffee House at West End, Brass Tacks, The Coffee Bar, Eden Plant Co, and Wild.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have a really good friend, Dien Tran, founder of DienMintPhotography, who helped me jump-start my passion and revive my vision and artistic abilities. Through his creative and professional work and his constant motivation for me to do the same, I eventually followed suit with my videography/cinematography.

I would also like to give a shoutout to the friends and family who have supported me through all of this. You all know who you are!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightretrospect/

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lightretrospect